


I'll Follow You Till You Love Me: A Guide By Kim Jongin

by Jongdaesdimple



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Bullying, Cat Hybrid Kyungsoo, Childhood Memories, Crushes, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Human Jongin, Hybrids, M/M, Mentioned TWICE Ensemble, Mild Hurt/Comfort, side pairing- 2yeon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:35:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22235680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jongdaesdimple/pseuds/Jongdaesdimple
Summary: Jongin didn’t quite know what moving in with a cat hybrid would be but he didn’t expect this. Having a cat hybrid roommate can be difficult but having Kyungsoo is even more difficult. Seems like no matter what Jongin does, Kyungsoo hates him. Maybe one day Kyungsoo will warm up to him.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin
Comments: 22
Kudos: 137





	1. Step 1: Talk to Him

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Kaisoo Day! I have most of this written but I want it to be nice and properly reviewed before posting the other chapters.

Jongin is nervous about starting university. He’s moving into the student dorms because his family lives a couple of hours away. He knows his older sisters all did just fine when they moved out but that doesn’t really settle his nerves. While his sisters were all 18 when they moved out, Jongin is only 17 since he skipped 1st grade. 

“Jongin” Jongin’s mom says smiling down at him “I know it’s a huge change but you’ll be ok, we bought you that bus pass and we’d really like it if you came to visit us every weekend.”

“I will” Jongin says looking up at his mom “I just hope I’ll get along with my roommate.”

“Didn’t you fill out that detailed personality test?” Jongin’s dad asks while they all walk into the elevator with Jongin’s things “They made sure you’d be with someone you get along with.”

“That’s right!” Jongin’s mom agrees “There’s no need to worry honey.”

They all get to Jongin’s new room and Jongin unlocks the door and looks in. Seems like Jongin’s roommate isn’t here yet. They bring in all Jongin’s suitcases and look around the main living area. 

Jongin is really lucky to have gotten this dorm building because it’s the only one with a 2 person dorm with separate bedrooms, a kitchenette and small living room. He didn’t want too many roommates. Not that he doesn’t love people, he’s pretty outgoing but he also tends to have trouble starting friendships so if he has multiple roommates they could ignore him and just hang out without him. He’d rather just have one roommate so he doesn’t have to worry about it. 

“We should get going it’s getting late” Jongin’s dad says “You won’t have any trouble setting up your bedroom alone right?”

“I’ll be ok” Jongin says softly thinking about his parents living him alone. 

“We’ll see you on Saturday, right?” Jongin’s mom asks looking sad. 

Jongin just nods not in the mood to talk. He’s quickly wrapped up in his mom’s arms. He hugs her back feeling a lot better. Hugs are the best. 

“Let’s let him enjoy his first night in his dorm ok?” Jongin’s dad says to his mom. 

“Yeah ok” She agrees finally letting go of her son. 

“Goodbye Nini” Jongin’s dad says before hugging his son “Call us anytime you want.”

“Thanks dad” Jongin smiles. 

Both his parents leave even though they clearly don’t really want to. Honestly, Jongin doesn’t want them to either but he really doesn’t have the space to have them stay over, plus his roommate probably wouldn’t be too happy about it. Speaking of his roommate, when is that guy going to show up?

Jongin rolls his suitcase over to one of the bedroom doors and tries to push it open but it won’t move. 

“Occupied.” Jongin hears a deep voice says from inside. 

“Oh sorry” Jongin says back before realizing it must be his new roommate “I’m your roommate Jongin!”

“Yeah I know I heard your parents” The voice returns almost sounding annoyed. 

“Uh, do you want to come out so we can talk a bit?” Jongin asks wondering why they’re talking across a door. 

“No” The voice answers curtly. 

“Ok?” Jongin says not sure how to react to that. 

Jongin walks towards the other bedroom door with his suitcase. It’s a pretty small bedroom but it’s really nice for a dorm. He has a window, a white metal loft bed and a wood (or more likely fake wood) desk as well as a closet and small end table. It’s really bare but Jongin brought his favourite teddy bears which will definitely make the room more comfortable and homey. 

Jongin unpacks his clothes, laptop, teddies and bedding. Once everything is set up Jongin debates trying to talk to his roommate again but it’s almost midnight so he decides it’s best just to get to sleep. 

Jongin wakes up to his annoying alarm. He doesn’t have school yet, it starts in a few days but he wants to get used to his new schedule. Jongin crawls out of bed and doesn’t even bother putting a shirt on before walking to the kitchen to get breakfast. 

“Oh you’re up” Jongin’s roommate says transferring scrambled eggs from a pan to a plate. 

“Yeah” Jongin replies sleepily while looking up at his roommate “Oh!”

Based on the deep voice Jongin heard last night, he was not expecting his roommate to look like that at all. He expected someone tall with wide shoulders and maybe abs or something but the man in front of him is much smaller than Jongin. He has huge round eyes, full heart-shaped lips, thick eyebrows, black messy hair that just barely disguises his black cat ears... wait cat ears?

“You’re a cat?” Jongin asks surprised, he’s met a few hybrids before but they aren’t very common and he grew up in a small town. 

His roommate sighs looking down at his plate before answering. 

“Not a cat” he answers “I’m mostly human.”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.” Jongin blushes, he’s only had one conversation and he already messed up. 

“It’s fine, just file your new roommate demand quickly” The cat hybrid says grabbing a fork from the drawer “I don’t want to deal with this after school starts.”

“No!” Jongin yells trying to correct the situation “I don’t mind having a hybrid as a roommate, I promise! I don’t know much... but um I can learn.”

“That’s great but I’m not teaching a class on my life” he answers eating his eggs. 

Damn, what did Jongin do to make this guy so mad at him?

“Can I at least know your name?” Jongin asks hoping he won’t have to label the guy as “roommate” or “cute cat hybrid”.

“Kyungsoo” Kyungsoo answers “If you do really want to stay roommates, we need some ground rules.”

“Um ok” Jongin says without having a reason to disagree. 

“Number one rule, don’t bring up any hybrid stereotypes. Second is don’t _ever_ go in my room or touch my stuff. The third rule is wear a shirt.” 

Jongin looks down at his bare chest before laughing in embarrassment. 

“No one cared at home and my back gets hot at night so-” Jongin starts to explain. 

“There are only three rules, I’m sure you can follow them” Kyungsoo says raising an eyebrow. 

“Yes ok I can do that” Jongin nods “Can I make my three rules?”

“Maybe” Kyungsoo answers “What are your rules?”

“On Friday nights, we watch a movie together _with_ popcorn. You cook supper, that isn’t really a rule but I can’t cook to save my life so I think it’s better for both of us. Lastly...” Jongin says trying to think of a good rule “Let me know when I upset you, I am really bad at reading passive-aggressiveness.”

“Sounds like you’re dangerously close to breaking my first rule” Kyungsoo says finishing his eggs. 

“Being passive-aggressive is a cat hybrid stereotype?” Jongin asks confused “How am I supposed to respect that rule when I don’t even know the stereotypes?” 

“Ok you get a break for ignorance” Kyungsoo sighs “Did you not have any hybrids at your high school?”

“No” Jongin smiles awkwardly. 

“Weird” Kyungsoo says before leaving the room. 

“Ok bye” Jongin whispers to himself. 

Jongin has no idea how he got paired up with Kyungsoo or why Kyungsoo applied for a dorm with a roommate in the first place but Jongin is determined to get Kyungsoo to like him. Movie nights should help and Kyungsoo did agree to have them every Friday. As weird as it might sound, even though Kyungsoo clearly isn’t interested in becoming close Jongin really wants to be his friend. 

Jongin will also have to research cat hybrids and hope the information isn’t biased since he doesn’t want to accidentally offend Kyungsoo. 

~=+•+=~

Classes start on Thursday because university is weird. His classes basically just go over the outline for the semester but he does start taking notes for a few. When he gets home Kyungsoo isn’t there but he shows up a few hours later just before it’s time for supper, thank god because Jongin is really hungry. 

“So what major are you in?” Jongin asks leaning on the counter. 

“Does it matter?” Kyungsoo answers before grabbing stuff out of the fridge “And I don’t like talking while I’m cooking.”

“Alright” Jongin says before leaving the kitchen to respect Kyungsoo’s wishes, so much for making friends. 

Jongin pulls out his phone and catches up on social media on the couch so he won’t bother Kyungsoo. His phone quickly gets boring after 45 minutes of waiting. Seemingly to save Jongin from boredom there’s a knock on their dorm door. 

“I’ll get it!” Jongin smiles.

He opens the door and sees a guy about Kyungsoo’s height, he has light brown fluffy hair and a little mole right under his lip. He’s really cute and his smile is so bright, Jongin wonders if he’s single... maybe he could ask him out. 

“Hi I’m Baekhyun!” Baekhyun introduces “I’m here to talk to Kyungsoo.”

“He’s cooking right now and he doesn’t like talking when he’s cooking” Jongin answers hoping Kyungsoo can hear and will be proud of him. 

“Oh well when he’s done would you mind giving him this?” Baekhyun says handing Jongin a flyer “I’m the vice-president of the hybrid’s club and we’re always looking for new members!”

“How can you be the vice-president if you’re not a hybrid?” Jongin asks a little confused. 

“I’m a corgi hybrid!” Baekhyun answers enthusiastically before pushing his hair a bit making his little ears obvious “Plus anyone is welcome to join, as long as they are respectful.”

“Could I join? I really want to know how to be polite around Kyungsoo. I don’t really know much about hybrids.” Jongin asks hopefully. 

“Of course you can join! And that’s really sweet of you! Hybrids are basically like any other humans but we have our quirks!” Baekhyun answers before pulling out a little card and writing something on it “Here’s my number, feel free to text me whenever you need some help.”

“Thanks” Jongin says, taking the card. 

“Have a nice dinner!” Baekhyun smiles before walking down the hall. 

Jongin walks back into the main room and sees that Kyungsoo is already setting the table with two plates of sushi and chopsticks.

“Who was that?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Vice-president of the hybrid’s club he had a flye-” Jongin starts. 

“You can just throw that out” Kyungsoo answers “I’m not in university to bond over sob stories.”

Sob stories? 

“We can eat now” Kyungsoo says sitting down. 

“You know how to make sushi?” Jongin asks looking at the delicious food. 

“Yeah, it’s not that hard.” Kyungsoo answers “It’s my favourite food so it made sense to learn how to make it.”

“Sushi’s your favourite food?” Jongin asks. 

“That’s what I just said.” Kyungsoo says eating a piece. 

“Mine’s chicken” Jongin answers. 

“What kind of chicken?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Fried chicken but I like all chicken” Jongin answers with a smile, Kyungsoo’s actually interested in him! 

“I’ll add it to the grocery list” Kyungsoo nods. 

“That’s really sweet of you” Jongin smiles. 

Kyungsoo looks up at him with a mixture of confusion and what seems like anger. 

“Did you think I wouldn’t make the food you like?” Kyungsoo asks “I’m not a dick, it makes sense to make something we’ll both enjoy.”

“Well, I don’t know it’s just nice to know you’ll make something because you know I like it.” Jongin defends, why does Kyungsoo act like everything Jongin says is a personal attack?

Kyungsoo doesn’t answer and just keeps eating until he’s finished. 

“You can do the dishes” Kyungsoo says as he puts his plate in the sink and walks towards his room. 

“That was a great meal. Thank you for making it, _you’re welcome Jongin_ , sleep well, _thanks you too!”_ Jongin whispers to himself playing the role of himself and Kyungsoo since Kyungsoo apparently is against finishing conversations.

Jongin finishes washing the dishes and heads to his room. He doesn’t really feel like sleeping since he kinda just feels like shit after talking to Kyungsoo. Right when he thought they might be making some progress Kyungsoo closes back up. 

Jongin changes out of his clothes to put on his PJs and sees a business card fall out of his pocket. He picks it up and reads it, right Baekhyun gave him his number! It shouldn’t be too late yet right?

**Jongin:** Hey Baekhyun it’s Jongin, Kyungsoo’s roommate

**Baekhyun:** Hi!

 **Baekhyun:** What’s up? (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ

**Jongin:** Well I tried saying I appreciate the work Kyungsoo did for me and he took it as an insult

**Baekhyun:** What do you mean? 

**Jongin:** He got all defensive asking if I thought he was a dick and why wouldn’t he do that etc

**Baekhyun:** Hmm that’s not really too clear Jonginnie

 **Baekhyun:** and I don’t think it’s a hybrid thing, probably a Kyungsoo thing so I can’t help ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

**Jongin:** Ah that’s too bad 

**Jongin:** I just want to be friends but he’s making it hard

**Baekhyun:** Just give it some time 

**Baekhyun:** Not everyone is as friendly as me! 

**Jongin:** At least I have one friend on campus then :)

**Baekhyun:** Of course! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Jongin ends up talking to Baekhyun for another two hours about random things. Some school-related things since Baekhyun knows a lot more because he’s not a freshman like Jongin and Kyungsoo. Jongin also talks to Baekhyun about other stuff too though and they have a lot in common. They like the same video games, they both love all kinds of food and stuffies. 

Jongin wanted to ask Baekhyun out before but now he _really_ wants to ask him out. The only thing he'd want to find out first is if Baekhyun has a significant other already because he’d rather not embarrass himself or make it awkward between him and his only friend in uni. 

~=+•+=~

It’s finally Friday which means he’ll get to be closer with Kyungsoo through movie night. Plus he’ll have popcorn and Kyungsoo agreed they could order pizza so it will definitely be a fun night. But before he can do that he has to get through his daily classes. 

Jongin has two in the morning then a break in the afternoon and another after 3pm. Like the first day of school, the classes mostly just go over the outline for the semester. Looks like it’s going to be a lot of work and Jongin is less than excited but his second morning class lets out early which is always nice. Jongin checks his phone for anything he might have missed during class. 

**Baekhyun:** Hey Jonginnie! ^.ㅅ ^

 **Baekhyun:** There’s a club meeting at 12 today! If you come we can get you set up as an official member! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

 **Baekhyun:** Plus you can meet the other members and they’re all super nice!

**Jongin:** Sure sounds great! Where is it?

**Baekhyun:** Room 103 in the library 

Jongin has some time before the meeting so he enjoys his lunch before going to the library to meet up with the club. He’s honestly kind of nervous to meet the club. Jongin knows Baekhyun said it would be ok that he’s not a hybrid but what if the other members don’t agree? Or what if he says something completely offensive without even knowing? It’s new and scary and he just really really doesn’t want to mess up. 

Jongin finds the meeting room in the library and takes a deep breath before walking in. 

“Hey Jongin! Glad you could make it” Baekhyun smiles “Everyone, this is Jongin.”

Jongin looks around and sees that all the eyes are on him which just makes him more nervous. There are 7 people in the room including Jongin and Baekhyun. There’s a cute guy smiling who looks like he’s probably a bunny hybrid, a very tall and broad looking dog hybrid, two cat hybrid guys who are sitting very close to each other and one guy with a very deep dimple but no hybrid looking features. Maybe he’s a human too?

“The bunny is Junmyeon, he’s the club president actually. The husky is Chanyeol, and the kitty boyfriends are Jongdae and Minseok. That’s Yixing” Baekhyun says pointing to the blond dimple boy “He’s not a hybrid.”

“You’re not a hybrid?” Jongin asks Yixing.

“Nope but all my friends are so I hang out here with them” Yixing explains “and it’s nice to help out with the activities and awareness campaigns.”

“Awareness?” Jongin asks, he really doesn’t know _anything_. 

“Yeah people think a lot of things about hybrids... most of it is very very wrong” Junmyeon says. 

“Like that we need ‘human’ supervision” Chanyeol scoffs “We’re not pets.”

“Or that we go into heat?” Jongdae says in disgust “We’re not even girls, not that girl hybrids go into heat either.”

“Oh” Jongin says not knowing how to react.

“Hopefully if we hold enough bakes sales and karaoke nights, people will learn that we’re pretty much like anyone else” Baekhyun smiles. 

“Is there anything that makes you different except for the ears?” Jongin asks honestly being curious. 

“Some of us have tails” Chanyeol says before wagging his for effect. 

“I have a tail too, it's just small!” Junmyeon argues. 

“Yeah like your-” Chanyeol laughs before being interrupted. 

“WHICH is why we called this meeting, the new lecture hall doesn’t currently have any tail accommodating seating.” Junmyeon says cutting Chanyeol off “We’ll need to talk to the school about that.”

Hybrids all have tails? Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to have one unless he’s hiding it or something. Wouldn’t he feel comfortable enough around the dorm not to hide it? He doesn’t hide his ears...

“Is that the reason there are holes in the backs of plastic chairs?” Jongin has always wondered about that. 

“That and it’s less plastic/cheaper so win win” Yixing explains.

After the group goes over how they’ll approach the school for some better seating options (which Jongin stays completely silent for because he knows nothing about the politics of the school), Baekhyun suggests that Jongin ask some more questions about hybrids. 

Jongin learns that apart from the tails and ears, hybrids tend to share a few characteristics with their non-human counterparts. Baekhyun and Chanyeol have a really good sense of smell and hearing. Junmyeon needs a mostly vegetarian diet while Jongdae and Minseok can’t really be vegan even if they wanted to. Mostly it seems they are very small differences. 

Jongin was quickly embarrassed when he asked if Jongdae and Minseok liked playing with yarn... they do not (“because that would be weird”), but Minseok does like knitting. Seems like Kyungsoo’s prickly personality is just because he’s like that and not really because he’s a cat hybrid. 

Jongin actually has to leave the meeting early to go to his class but it was a really helpful meeting. Maybe next time he can ask Jongdae and Minseok what the cat stereotypes are so he can avoid them all. 

After his afternoon class he can finally go home and watch a movie with Kyungsoo. When Jongin gets home Kyungsoo already has the pizzas on the counter. 

“We each get our own pizza?” Jongin asks, looking at the boxes. 

“I didn’t know what you liked so I got one cheese and one Hawaiian” Kyungsoo explains. 

“Am I going to get kicked out of the dorm if I say I hate pineapples on pizza?” Jongin asks. 

“No? That would be kind of ridiculous, it’s just a pizza topping. You just don’t have to eat that one.” Kyungsoo says. 

“I actually like Hawaiian so we can share” Jongin smiles. 

“Sure” Kyungsoo nods before giving both boxes to Jongin “Take these and figure out how we’re going to watch the movie, I’ll make popcorn.” 

Jongin brings the pizzas out of the kitchen and looks around the main living area. They don’t have a TV so they’ll have to watch on a laptop, but where should they watch? Maybe on the couch. The coffee table is kinda too low so watching the movie would be a bit awkward, they’d be looking down at it. 

“Can we watch it in one of our rooms?” Jongin asks looking back at Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo pours popcorn kernels into a pot and puts the lid on. Jongin looks at him in confusion. 

“Your room, mine is off limits remember?” Kyungsoo answers turning around to face Jongin. 

“What are you doing?” Jongin asks. 

“Making popcorn.” Kyungsoo answers flatly “From scratch is way better than microwave popcorn and it’s not hard to make.” 

“Right” Jongin nods “I’ll go set up the movie.” 

Jongin brings the pizza into his room and tries to figure out how they should watch the movie. He grabs all the pillows he has and sets them up on his bed to make a way of comfortably sitting on the bed. It might be a little squishy because his bed is only twin sized but it’ll do. 

Kyungsoo walks in with the bowl of popcorn and looks around the room. 

“How many teddy bears do you have?” Kyungsoo asks putting the popcorn on the pizza boxes. 

“In here? Twelve.” Jongin says embarrassed “I-I just like them. They’re cute and-“ 

“They are” Kyungsoo agrees without smiling “so are we watching the movie on your bed?” 

“Yeah if you’re ok with that” Jongin says glad Kyungsoo isn’t going to make fun of him. 

Kyungsoo walks past Jongin and climbs up to the loft bed. Jongin can’t help but notice Kyungsoo’s pants are rather fitted, but there’s no outline of a tail... Jongin realizes a bit too late that he’s staring at his roommate’s butt and he flushed red with embarrassment. 

“Pass me the food and then you can climb up” Kyungsoo says, if he noticed Jongin’s reaction he doesn’t seem bothered by it. 

“Sure yes ok” Jongin says before handing Kyungsoo the food. 

Jongin climbs up and tries not to embarrass himself even more. Kyungsoo was the one to pick the movie so Jongin is curious as to what it is. He wasn’t really expecting Kyungsoo to pick a movie like 17 again but he likes that movie too so he’s happy. Jongin grabs a fistful of popcorn and stuffs it in his mouth. 

“Holy shit” Jongin says after he finishes eating it “You’re right this is way better.”

“Thanks” Kyungsoo mutters pulling some of the blankets a little higher up and getting comfy. 

Just like Jongin thought, Kyungsoo stays pretty quiet during the movie but he does laugh multiple times and Jongin _really_ wasn’t expecting Kyungsoo to laugh so cutely. It’s like the complete opposite of his angry glare. Jongin hopes they watch comedies every Friday just so he can hear it again. 

Once the movie is done Jongin realizes why people don’t often have movie nights in bed. There are pizza and popcorn crumbs everywhere. 

“Do we have a vacuum cleaner?” Jongin asks. 

“Yeah a little handheld one, I’ll go get it.” Kyungsoo says before awkwardly crawling over Jongin to get off the bed. 

Jongin really thought Kyungsoo would be against any sort of physical contact but it seems he really doesn’t mind sitting right beside Jongin. He never once complained about how close they were sitting or about the fact they were sitting in the same bed. Kyungsoo is weird but in an interesting unique way and Jongin just wants to understand him so they can be friends. 

“You just push the on switch” Kyungsoo says reaching up on his tippy toes to give Jongin the little vacuum “it’s fully charged.” 

Kyungsoo really is an adorable height, especially when he’s up on his tippy toes.

“Thanks” Jongin says, taking the vacuum and turning it on. Once he does Kyungsoo leaves his room. Jongin wants to run after him because he has a lot to say but he needs to finish vacuuming first. 

Jongin vacuums you every little crumb and climbs down the ladder with the vacuum. Jongin steps out of his room and sees Kyungsoo in the kitchen with a cup of tea. 

“Here” Jongin says giving the vacuum back “I don’t know where it goes.” 

“Bottom drawer” Kyungsoo answers pulling the kitchen drawer open. 

Jongin nods and puts the vacuum in it. 

“Hey um thanks for tonight.” Jongin smiles “I think we talked more tonight than he did in all the other days combined. It was really nice.” 

“I was just following your rule” Kyungsoo says before taking a sip of tea. 

“Yeah but it was just...” Jongin says feeling awkward “You didn’t have to buy two pizzas and make popcorn from scratch but you did and it made everything a lot better so I just want to say I appreciate it.” 

“You’re welcome” Kyungsoo says without seeming like he means it. 

“Can I ask you something?” Jongin asks 

“You just did-“ Jongin frowns at Kyungsoo “ok sure what is it?”

“Why did you get a room with a roommate if you try to avoid me all the time? Do you just not like me personally?” Jongin asks in a soft voice. 

“I’m just bad at talking to people. This sounds stupid but I don’t know, I thought I could get better if I had a roommate” Kyungsoo laughs looking down in his cup “Obviously I’m doing a shit job.”

“Well then I’ll keep trying to be your friend” Jongin smiles “I’m not giving up.”

“Thanks” Kyungsoo smiles still not looking at Jongin “Can’t promise it won’t be a while until I start tolerating you being around all the time but I’ll keep trying too.”

“Can I hug you?” Jongin asks. 

Kyungsoo looks at Jongin with a look of intense judgement before walking into his room. 

“You’re breaking rule three!” Jongin yells “You’re supposed to tell me when you’re upset!”

“I‘m upset!” Kyungsoo yells back “And I don’t want to hug you!”

That was direct so Jongin can’t really complain except now he just feels lonely with no one to hug. He still has his teddies in his room though, maybe that’ll be enough. 

~=+•+=~

Sundays are nice, no school, no homework and he’s at home with his family. He misses Kyungsoo a bit but he’s so happy to see his parents. He gets up out of his bed at 11 am to eat brunch. 

“Nini! Glad you’re finally up” Jongin’s mom smiles “Your breakfast is in the microwave.”

“Thanks mom” Jongin says before starting the microwave to heat up his food.

“Now that your dad isn’t here do you want to tell me how school really is?” Jongin mom smiles mischievously. 

“What do you mean?” Jongin says “I told both of you all about it.”

“Yeah but what about boy talk?” Jongin’s mom asking wiggling her eyebrows “Your roommate, Kyungsoo was it? Isn’t he cute?”

Right, ever since Jongin went on his first date Jongin’s mom has been trying to set him up with any nice boy or girl but she seems to have noticed his significant bias towards cute small boys. 

“He’s nice but I don’t think he likes me” Jongin starts “but there might be another boy...”

“Continue” Jongin’s mom says excitedly. 

“He’s the vice-president of the club I’m in and he’s sweet and passionate” Jongin smiles thinking about the little corgi hybrid “He’s really bubbly and funny but when I was watching the meeting I realized he’s also really really hard working. The club has a real impact on the school and he’s done a lot of that work.”

“Sounds like a keeper” Jongin’s mom smiles. 

“You’re going to tell dad aren’t you?” Jongin rolls his eyes “It’s a tiny crush! Don’t tell him! He’ll go stalking him and Baekhyun doesn’t need that.”

“Baekhyun?” Jongin’s mom smirks. 

“No- Mom don’t” Jongin sighs “Can you leave him alone if promise I’ll keep you updated?”

“Ok but if you go on a date with Baekhyunnie and you don’t tell me I’ll tell your dad AND your sisters. Maybe aunt Jangmi..”

“I promise I’ll tell you” Jongin agrees.

“Good” Jongin’s mom nods “You could go go back to school a little early this week if you want to see him...”

“Maybe” Jongin answers. 

Jongin stays at home for another 4 hours and does his laundry before he decides to head back to his dorm, maybe to call Baekhyun afterwards. 

“Kyungsoo I’m home!” Jongin says putting his clothes down “Are you here?”

Jongin walks towards Kyungsoo’s room before remembering he can’t go in to check on Kyungsoo. Jongin walks back towards his clothes to bring them into his room. He opens the door and sees a very large teddy bear in the middle of his room. 

“I didn’t buy it for you” Kyungsoo says quietly “My little sister got two for her birthday and my parents said she could only keep one. She doesn’t need to be even more of a spoiled little child. Anyway I thought you’d like it.”

“I love it” Jongin smiles “Thank you.”

In true Kyungsoo style, he leaves the room without saying anything at all. Jongin puts his freshly washed clothes away and walks into the main living space. He sees Kyungsoo eating a cheese platter with cheese, crackers as well as grapes and apple slices. It’s an odd thing for a university student to be eating but what concerns Jongin is the grapes. He’s had a cat before and he knows grapes are really toxic. 

“What are you doing?” Jongin asks hoping Kyungsoo will snap out of it. 

“Eating?” Kyungsoo says annoyed. 

“But grapes are toxic!” Jongin yells. 

“To cats” Kyungsoo says glaring at Jongin “I’m not a cat!”

“I was trying to save your life!” Jongin yells, why the hell is Kyungsoo mad?

“And I told you, I’m not a cat. What was the first rule, Jongin? Was it to treat me like a pet? I don’t need your fucking help. If I was deadly allergic to grapes I think I would know not to eat them.” Kyungsoo fumes “Since you broke rule one, you can have fun feeding yourself tonight.”

“I shouldn’t try to help you when I think you’re going to die?” Jongin yells back frustrated with Kyungsoo. 

“If I’m sitting around looking fine, it’s a good assumption that I’m not dying” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes before leaving the room.  
  


Jongin’s not sure why Kyungsoo is so mad at him but Jongin clearly offended him somehow. Jongin reaches for his phone, maybe Baekhyun can help Jongin out. 

**Jongin:** Hey Baekhyun I hate to keep asking you for help but I need some help

**Baekhyun:** No problem Jongin!

 **Baekhyun:** That’s what friends are for V^ᴥ^V

 **Baekhyun:** What do you need?

**Jongin:** Kyungsoo was eating a grape and I thought it would hurt him and he got really mad about it. 

**Baekhyun:** I think you might just need some... education

 **Baekhyun:** I know you’re new to hybrids so it’s just ignorance and you don’t mean anything by it but it can be taken the wrong way. 

**Baekhyun:** I’ll ask Jongdae and Minseok if they can help out

**Jongin:** Ok thanks

After just a few seconds Jongin gets another text.

**Unknown number:** Hey Jongin! It’s Minseok 

**Minseok:** If you want to come to our dorm we can help you learn about cat hybrid stereotypes

**Jongin:** sure thanks!

**Minseok:** We’re in the ugly red and yellow building on college street, room 208

**Jongin:** I’ll be there soon

Jongin drives over while picking up some drive-through, Kyungsoo won’t feed him and he really doesn’t trust himself to cook. He has no trouble finding the dorm so he knocks and is let in. 

“Come in!” Jongdae smiles. 

“You guys have a nice place” Jongin says looking around, their apartment is way bigger than Jongin’s dorm, but it is an apartment after all. 

“One-bedroom apartments are way cheaper than two-person dorms” Minseok smiles. 

“One bedroom?” Jongin asks absently before watching Minseok wrap Jongdae in a back hug “Right one bedroom.”

Jongdae detaches from Minseok before going to grab something from behind the couch. 

“Ok we’ve made a list of every stereotype we’ve been told and now we can go over them” Jongdae says unfolding the bristle board. 

“You guys really spent a lot of effort on this” Jongin says looking at the presentation.

“Of course! We like you and we want you and your kitty roommate to get along well.” Minseok smiles “You just need a little sensitivity training, so if you know about the stereotypes, then you’ll know to avoid them.”

“The first one is that we don’t like water” Jongdae says pointing to a little drawing of a pool “This isn’t true and not even all that true of pet cats.”

“Another is that we sleep all the time, we do not, we need just about as much sleep as anyone else” Minseok says pointing to the bed drawing, did they draw these themselves? Kinda looks like a toddler did it “But we do like naps or at least me and Jongdae do.”

“We can drink milk, that’s not an issue for us like it is for cats.” Jongdae explains and Jongin blushes thinking about the grape thing “We need more protein and some has to be from animal sources but other than that we’re like any other human.”

“Well you know we don’t play with cat toys but some people still think that” Minseok sighs. 

“We aren’t all introverts who hate people” Jongdae laughs “I mean some cat hybrids are but no more than any other group of people.”

“Other than that there are some general hybrid stereotypes but we went over that last meeting so that’s pretty much it” Minseok concludes. 

“That’s all?” Jongin asks skeptically. 

“Yup” Minseok and Jongdae say in synchronism. 

“Then I still don’t really understand why Kyungsoo got so mad.” Jongin admits. 

“Maybe he had some issues in the past and it’s just bringing up old wounds” Minseok suggests “Could you talk to him about it?”

“I wish” Jongin sighs “He barely talks to me in general. I don’t even think he sees me as a friend. Probably more like someone he has to deal with.”

“Jongin I’m sure that’s not true” Minseok says putting a hand on Jongin’s shoulder to comfort him “It might just take some time to trust you.”

“I hope so” Jongin says sadly. 

If he spends the rest of the year with a roommate that hates him he’s gonna have a pretty terrible first year at university. He wanted to make lifelong friends but it seems like no matter what he does he’s going to make Kyungsoo upset. He knows Kyungsoo said this would be hard but he’s doing his best and it’s just not working. What if he’s just not good enough and never will be? It would be helpful if Kyungsoo would open up a bit more but Jongin can’t ask him to do that if he’s not comfortable with it. 

“Jongin are you ok?” Jongdae asks. 

“Yeah just a long night” Jongin forces a smile. 

~=+•+=~

The first few weeks of school go by so quickly and Jongin is worrying about midterms even though he swears school _just_ started. 

His almost friendship with Kyungsoo has barely progressed. They hang out everyday but really only for supper or movie night. They never go out together and Jongin is still the only one who seems to enjoy their interactions but Jongin promised not to give up so he won’t. Plus he actually likes Kyungsoo. Even if Kyungsoo seems like he can just barely tolerate Jongin, Jongin really likes the little cat hybrid. 

Kyungsoo is really considerate. Even if he doesn’t want to spend time with Jongin he’s never gotten mad, he speaks his mind which can come off a bit rude sometimes but Jongin likes it because it means he can correct his behaviour. Kyungsoo also has such an amazing smile, not that Jongin has seen it much but in the few instances he has, it’s been amazing. His eyes turn into adorable crescents, his cheeks get all round and his smile is still the same heart shape that his lips are. Truly a great sight, Jongin doubts anyone could stop themselves from smilingly looking at it, it’s too contagious. 

Jongin knows very little about his roommate since he doesn’t open up much, but it just makes Jongin more curious. Kyungsoo likes sushi, sweaters (he wears them even when it’s pretty hot out), the colour black (it’s 90% of his wardrobe) and oddly enough his favourite movie genre is rom-coms. Jongin still doesn’t know what Kyungsoo is studying since he only studies in his room, which is off-limits (rule 2). He also doesn’t know anything about Kyungsoo’s family (except that he has a little sister) or his childhood. With time hopefully, he’ll learn more. 

Jongin sighs as if to dismiss his thoughts and opens the door to the dorm. He’s so tired. He messed up his lab 4 times and it took forever to finish. 3 hours in a lab because he just couldn’t get it right is really shitty. 

“Jongin!” Kyungsoo says running up to Jongin grabbing his arms rather harshly “Have I ever told you I love you because I do! I love you!”

Kyungsoo bends down and bites Jongin’s hand lightly while laughing before and quickly running away and jumping onto the couch. He also reaches out and knocks everything off their coffee table, including what looks like Kyungsoo’s laptop.

“What the hell!” Jongin says completely shocked. 

He expected to come back to his moody roommate not... whoever this is. 

“Kyungsoo are you on drugs?” Jongin asks as he hears Kyungsoo purr so loudly, Jongin didn’t even know he could purr but it’s a really nice sound. Has Kyungsoo never been happy enough to purr before? Even during their movie nights? 

“It’s legal don’t worry Nini” Kyungsoo says rolling around on the couch like an excited preschool student. 

“ _You_ don’t call me that” Jongin says still so taken back by Kyungsoo’s behaviour. 

“I should! It’s cute” Kyungsoo says getting up off the couch and walking over to Jongin “Like you!”

“Kyungsoo I feel like you’re going to regret this when you sober up.” Jongin says feeling guilty for seeing this side of Kyungsoo when he’s been so standoffish. 

“I want to change my third rule, you can walk around shirtless” Kyungsoo says while purring and rubbing Jongin’s soft sweater “I want my third rule to be that we always keep a jar of catnip in the dorm.”

“Catnip?” Jongin wonders “Oh you’re on catnip!”

“Bingo” Kyungsoo answers before smelling Jongin’s neck “You smell nice.”

“Thank you?” Jongin answers “I think I should help you sober up.”

“Noooo” Kyungsoo whines “I like this everything is fun!”

“Yeah but you’re not in control” Jongin answers. 

“What do you mean?” Kyungsoo asks with a bigger smile Jongin thought Kyungsoo was even possible of “I can do anything I want!” 

Kyungsoo reaches up and boops Jongin’s nose. 

“See!” Kyungsoo says “I wanted to do that.”

“High Kyungsoo wanted to do that, sober Kyungsoo wouldn’t” Jongin answers “Come on we’re going to my room because I think the smell is what’s affecting you.”

“Your room is fun! It’s cute!” Kyungsoo says before running over to Jongin’s room. 

“That wasn’t too hard” Jongin says following Kyungsoo into his room. 

Kyungsoo climbs onto Jongin’s bed and pulls Jongin’s blankets around his head, he looks so cute but Jongin doesn’t want to say anything since sober Kyungsoo would kill him. Within just a minute, Kyungsoo seems to sober up. 

“Um” Kyungsoo says without a smile “I didn’t mean for you to see me like that... I was just going to play with the catnip while you were doing your lab but I got carried away, I apologize.”

“You don’t have to apologize” Jongin answers “I really didn’t mind I just thought you’d be upset.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t reply, instead, he just pulls the blankets tighter around him. 

“You should go vacuum it up so I can leave your room” Kyungsoo says coldly. 

“Sure” Jongin agrees. 

Jongin walks out of his room and grabs their little dust buster and sucks up all the dried green catnip flakes. Jongin picks up all the items Kyungsoo knocked off the coffee table and notices a huge crack in Kyungsoo’s laptop screen. 

“Kyungsoo you can come out!” Jongin yells. 

Kyungsoo walks out meekly before taking a deep breath. 

“Ok, it’s gone” Kyungsoo says walking closer to Jongin “Is that my laptop?”

“You knocked it over and um” Jongin says picking it up “I think it’s broken.”

“Shit! I remember doing that but I didn’t think it was going to break!” Kyungsoo says worriedly looking at his laptop’s screen “I’ll have to send it for repairs or something.”

“You can use mine while you wait” Jongin offers. 

“Thanks” Kyungsoo says before pausing “Listen, I didn’t mean anything I said before but... you are really a good friend and I do mean that.”

“We’re friends?” Jongin asks hopefully. 

“Yeah” Kyungsoo says quietly “But I don’t love you or anything.”

Kyungsoo swiftly leaves the room without saying goodbye, as usual. 

~=+•+=~

“-And that’s the difference between white and brown fat.” The prof concludes. 

Shit Jongin wasn’t taking notes. 

“Can anyone tell me why babies would have more brown fat?” The prof asks the class. 

As per usual, not a single person answers. Which means the prof is going to ask someone at random and Jongin still doesn’t know what brown fat is. He quickly looks it up on his laptop. 

“Boy wearing the black hoodie, looks like you know the answer.” The prof says calling on a guy a few rows ahead of Jongin. 

“Babies tend to lose heat faster” The guy starts with a voice that sounds suspiciously familiar “Brown fat can create non-shivering heat which is important since babies don’t have the developed musculature to create enough heat through shivering like adults can.”

“That is correct, however, there is a little more to it-” The prof says before switching the slide. 

Jongin tries to place the voice. It must be someone he doesn’t talk to that often because otherwise, he’d know the guy was in his class... maybe it was someone from highschool. Kris? No Kris is way too tall Jongin would never miss him, plus why would he be in a first-year course. What other first years does Jongin know? Could it be Kyungsoo? Jongin replays the voice he just heard in his head... but if it were Kyungsoo wouldn’t he have told Jongin? He knows the classes Jongin is taking. They could have been sitting together the whole time and studied together for the midterm. Maybe Jongin didn’t hear it right, maybe it’s just someone who sounds like Kyungsoo. 

“That’s all for today you can all go” The prof says turning off the projector. 

Jongin races out of the class to see who the voice belongs to. He grabs his stuff and runs after the guy in the black hoodie. 

“Hey I wanted to know how you knew about the baby fat-” Jongin says before the black hoodie guy turns to face him. He sees his roommate with glasses though, since when does Kyungsoo have glasses? “Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen before he turns back around quickly and speed walks away. 

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin says trying to get his attention again “Kyungsoo don’t ignore me!”

“Fine” Kyungsoo says pulling off his hood and turning around “I have another class though so make it quick.”

“Why don’t you sit with me in class?” Jongin asks hoping for an answer that isn’t heartbreaking “and also since when do you have glasses?”

“I only need glasses for my astigmatism so I don’t always wear them and I told you I’m not good with people. I go to class to listen to the lecture, not to socialize.” Kyungsoo explains. 

“Maybe you’ll find you enjoy class a little more by being beside a friend? In case you have questions or didn’t hear the prof right?” Jongin says trying to persuade Kyungsoo.

“I’ll think about it” Kyungsoo says before walking away. 

Not the worst way that conversation could have ended. 

Before Kyungsoo can walk too far away three guys tall guys block his way. 

“Hey, kitty kitty where do you think you’re going all alone?” One of the guys laughs before flicking Kyungsoo's ear. 

Kyungsoo quickly puts his hood back on. 

“Get out of my way” Kyungsoo says angrily but none of them move. 

“Are you going to scratch us? Should we be calling animal control?” A second guy laughs.

“Fuck off” Kyungsoo grumbles before turning back towards Jongin. 

They lock eyes for just a second before Kyungsoo looks away but Jongin can tell he’s very uncomfortable. Even with his hood up, Jongin can tell Kyungsoo’s ears are pressed back flat against Kyungsoo’s head. Jongin wasn’t going to get involved because he thought Kyungsoo would murder the guys before Jongin had the chance but Kyungsoo just looks scared. 

“Hey, assholes let him get to class” Jongin says walking toward the guys. 

“Awww is your boyfriend here to help? You must be a good lay if he’s willing to date a fleabag.” The first guy spits. 

“What the hell is your problem?” Jongin asks not even bothering to correct the “boyfriend” comment.

“University is for people, not freak science mistakes.” One of the guys says really seriously. 

Jongin doesn’t even know how to respond. He’s never encountered someone with such fucked up world views. He doesn’t even notice when Kyungsoo runs towards a different exit until one of the guys points it out. No wonder Kyungsoo has trouble trusting people. 

“Yeah run with your tail between your legs you little pus-“ the guy doesn’t finish his comment because Jongin punches him square across the jaw. 

The guy looks back at Jongin in shock and Jongin quickly realizes what a terrible decision he’s made. There are three of them and one of him. Jongin sprints as fast as he can away and into a more populated area. They wouldn’t beat him up in public right? That’s assault, they’d get in trouble. The guys seem to realize that too because they don’t try to fight Jongin. 

“You’re just like your freak boyfriend.” One of them says in disgust “Coward.”

Jongin has so much he wants to say about that but he really just wants to get out of the mess he created so he doesn’t say anything and hopes they leave. 

One of them scoffs and they all start to leave. Thank God. Jongin walks the other way. It’ll take longer to get to his dorm but it’s worth it if he doesn’t have to see those guys again. 

Jongin can’t wait to get back and just play PUBG or something. Anything to forget what happened. Jongin wonders if Kyungsoo is ok. He looked really shaken up earlier. 

Jongin opens the door to the dorm and sees Kyungsoo crying on their couch. Kyungsoo looks up at Jongin surprised. 

“Y-you don’t have class?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“No that was my last class” Jongin says, he wants to rush to Kyungsoo to comfort him but he’s not sure Kyungsoo wants that. 

“Um I’ll just go in my room then” Kyungsoo says taking a deep breath. 

“Wait” Jongin says which makes Kyungsoo pause “Do you want to talk about it?”

“What’s to talk about?” Kyungsoo laughs pitifully “Just a dumb bully. Whatever.” 

“Clearly that’s not how you feel.” Jongin says sitting beside Kyungsoo hoping he made the right decision. 

“It was nothing I haven’t heard before” Kyungsoo says pressing his lips together “I’m just weak. They throw a few insults around and I can’t even go to my next class.” 

“ _You’re_ weak?” Jongin asks in surprise “Kyungsoo you’re one of the scariest people I know and I mean that in the best way.”

“Thanks” Kyungsoo laughs lightly. 

“Everyone has things that affect them more than other people” Jongin explains “it doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human.”

“I’m not human” Kyungsoo says sadly. 

“You know what I mean.” Jongin says softly “Plus based on the biological species concept I think you are human, just a different sub-species.” 

Kyungsoo actually smiles at that comment. 

“So you _do_ pay attention in biology” Kyungsoo says. 

“I do but I’d still like it a lot better if you’d sit with me.” Jongin says nudging Kyungsoo “I zone out a lot and there are so many blanks in my notes.” 

“Of course there are” Kyungsoo smiles. 

“Oh I see how it is” Jongin smiles back “You need to laugh at me to feel better?” 

Kyungsoo just responds with a smile. 

“You are feeling better right?” Jongin asks seriously. 

“Yeah but” Kyungsoo says without continuing. 

“But?” Jongin asks. 

“This might sound weird but could I sleep with you tonight?” Kyungsoo says before quickly correcting “like fully dressed in your bed beside you. I just don’t want to be alone.” 

“Absolutely” Jongin smiles, maybe Kyungsoo really is starting to warm up to him. He’s just worried tomorrow this will all go away and Kyungsoo will be all aloof and indifferent again. 

“Did you really punch him?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Yeah that was a terrible decision but he was such a dick” Jongin pouts. 

“They could have destroyed you” Kyungsoo laughs “you’re dumb.”

“Very dumb yes” Jongin laughs with Kyungsoo. 

Even though this whole situation was terrible. He’s glad he could be there for Kyungsoo. Jongin almost forgets about the whole sleepover thing until a little Kyungsoo in PJs walks into his room at 11 pm. 

Kyungsoo starts climbing up and Jongin realizes there’s really not a lot of room for two people to sleep side by side on his bed. 

“Are you sure you want to sleep here? There’s not a lot of room” Jongin says trying to make as much room as possible. 

“That’s fine” Kyungsoo says before getting comfy in the bed “I thought you agreed to wear a shirt.”

“I’m in my own room!” Jongin whines. 

“It’s fine I don’t care” Kyungsoo says before getting pretty close to Jongin. “Good night Jongin.”

“Good night” Jongin replies trying to stay calm even though he really didn’t expect Kyungsoo to feel this comfortable around him. Earlier today he wouldn’t even agree to sit with him in class and how they’re in bed together. The hot and cold of their relationship is really starting to mess with Jongin’s head. First Kyungsoo says he can barely tolerate him, then he buys him a teddy. He yells at Jongin for worrying about him, then he admits he sees him as a friend and now this. How does Kyungsoo really feel?

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“Yeah?” 

“Can we cuddle?” Kyungsoo whispers almost embarrassed. 

Jongin smiles and moves to wrap Kyungsoo in his arms. It’s surprisingly comfortable and after a few minutes, he feels himself drift off to sleep. That is until he starts hearing this low rumbling sound that makes him wonder if there could be an earthquake in the area. After a minute the rumbling stops and Jongin realizes what it was. Purring. Kyungsoo was purring right before he fell asleep. Jongin smiles to himself knowing he was able to make Kyungsoo that happy.


	2. Step 2: ??????

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Unedited* I will try to fix the errors soon but I'm working on finishing the last chapter/epilogue

Since their little cuddle session, Kyungsoo seems more comfortable around Jongin. He’s not as reserved and even starts some conversations just to talk. It’s nice. It’s like Kyungsoo finally trusts Jongin and Jongin loves the feeling. He’s not sure if it’s because he stood up to the bully for Kyungsoo or because Jongin comforted him afterwards, probably both, but he couldn’t be happier regardless of the cause. He finally feels like he’s really friends with Kyungsoo and it brings a smile to his face. 

Jongin stops himself from thinking about Kyungsoo momentarily so he can continue to hook up his Xbox to the TV Kyungsoo brought into their dorm. His parents weren’t using the Xbox so they let Jongin take it. He’s really excited to have a console again. Kyungsoo probably won’t play with him but playing alone is fun too. 

“Jongin what do you want for dinner?” Kyungsoo asks flatly walking out of his room. 

“We have chicken right?” Jongin asks. 

“Chicken is not an accurate description of a dish” Kyungsoo sighs “What kind of chicken?”

“Hmmm how about orange chicken? I haven’t had it in forever.” Jongin says walking towards the kitchen. 

“No citrus” Kyungsoo says with a look of disgust. 

“No citrus?” Jongin smiles mischievously “You hate citrus?”

Kyungsoo looks at Jongin with worry. Jongin opens the fridge and picks up an orange. 

“Why did you buy these then?” Jongin asks before throwing the orange at Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo steps back and lets the orange fall to the ground. 

“Can you put that back please?” Kyungsoo says looking at the orange on the ground “You asked for oranges, not me.”

“You can’t touch them?” Jongin asks picking the orange up “Are you allergic?”

“No they just smell awful and it would take forever to wash that off my skin” Kyungsoo says still glaring at the orange. 

“I was thinking about buying citrus body wash” Jongin says watching Kyungsoo’s expression turn into pure horror “but I think I’ll stick to the one I have.”

“Good” Kyungsoo nods “I’m making seafood alfredo.”

“Sounds great” Jongin smiles. 

Jongin leaves the kitchen to let Kyungsoo work alone since that’s what he prefers. With the Xbox installed, waiting for supper to be ready takes almost no time. 

As usual, the food is absolutely delicious and the dinner conversation is rather limited. 

“I’m going to do homework.” Kyungsoo announces bringing his plates to the sink. 

“Is it biology cause you agreed we could do that together.”

“It’s a history paper” Kyungsoo answers “I have to do it by myself.”

“Ok well, good luck!” Jongin says before looking around the room. 

He doesn’t have any homework... well none he wants to do now and he has some time before he wants to sleep so Jongin makes the logical decision of playing a video game with his newly-installed Xbox. That is until he’s interrupted by a knock on the door. Jongin answers and sees a delivery person. 

“Are you Do Kyungsoo?” The delivery woman asks. 

“No, he’s my roommate.” Jongin answers. 

“Ok well I have a package he needs to sign” she says before inspecting the box “from cyber computer shop” 

“Oh I know what that is” Jongin says excitedly, finally Kyungsoo won’t need to take Jongin’s laptop anymore. 

“I can’t hand this over until he signs and I have other deliveries so if he's here-“ She starts with a frown. 

“Yeah, no problem! I’ll go get him!” Jongin assures the woman. 

Jongin races to Kyungsoo’s room. 

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin yells from outside Kyungsoo’s room “Your package is here and they need you to sign!”

Jongin waits a few seconds before knocking again. 

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin yells “Fine I’m coming in!”

Jongin opens the door and inside is the last thing he’d expect. The whole room is covered in blankets, it’s like the whole room is one giant blanket fort. The blankets go from the bed down to the end table positioned strategically in one corner of the room. Most of the fort’s “roof” is only one foot off the ground so you’d have to crawl around inside it. 

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo says poking his head out of the only exit “I told you not to come in!”

“Your laptop is at the door and they need you to sign it asap” Jongin says still in shock “Have you always lived in a blanket fort?”

“It’s comfortable” Kyungsoo answers getting out of the fort “It feels safer.”

“I mean I have over 10 teddy bears in my room so I’m not about to judge.” Jongin answers. 

“Good” Kyungsoo smiles briefly before leaving the room.

“Hey, can we have movie night in here?” Jongin asks but Kyungsoo is too far away to hear him. 

Jongin leaves his room to go follow Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo is already opening his fixed laptop in the main living space. 

“I won’t have to use yours anymore” Kyungsoo says flatly. 

“I didn’t mind” Jongin smiles. 

“You can go get it I left it in my room” Kyungsoo says pointing to his room. 

“I can go in your room now?” Jongin asks. 

"I don’t care anymore. Secret’s out so” Kyungsoo shrugs. 

“But why did you even care? It’s just your room. It’s not like you're hiding a dead body or something.” Jongin laughs 

“I think most people would make fun of someone who lives in a blanket fort” Kyungsoo smiles sadly. 

“I’m not most people then” Jongin smiles. 

“No, you’re not” Kyungsoo smiles for real this time “Might as well cancel all the rules then, we’re both pretty respectful and I’ll keep making supper but not because it’s a rule. I like cooking and I don’t like doing dishes.”

“If we’re cancelling the rules does that mean I can walk around shirtless?” Jongin asks. 

Kyungsoo pauses for a moment looking scared but the red tips of his ears say a different story. 

“Sure” Kyungsoo agrees not seeming too confident in the decision “we’re cancelling the rules so yeah you can uh do that.” 

Jongin can’t hold in his smile or his laughter about Kyungsoo’s coy behaviour and Kyungsoo responds by leaving. 

~=+•+=~

Jongin’s really excited to have Baekhyun over. He even texted his mom and everything. Jongin still hasn’t had the courage to ask him out on a proper date but inviting him to his place is kinda like a date. Except Kyungsoo will be there, well probably in his blanket fort but he’ll still be close by. 

Jongin hears a knock and sprints to the door. 

“Baekhyun!” Jongin says with a huge smile “Come in!”

“Damn you guys have a nice dorm” Baekhyun says looking around “It’s just you two in here?”

“Yup” Jongin nods “I can take your coat if you want!”

“Oh, thanks” Baekhyun says handing his coat to Jongin. 

“So how are we going to play video games together?” Baekhyun asks before seeing the TV in the room “HOW DO YOU HAVE A TV TOO? DAMN DO YOUR PARENTS OWN THE SCHOOL?”

Baekhyun quickly runs over to the moderately sized TV. 

“Kyungsoo brought the TV because we watch a lot of movies. I brought the Xbox because my parents weren’t using it” Jongin explains. 

“I can’t wait to beat your ass” Baekhyun says sitting on the couch. 

If Jongin had been eating, he would have choked but instead, he just flushes red and tries to remember how to walk towards the couch.

The two boys play a lot of games which involves quite a bit of shoving and cheating by stealing controllers. Jongin is absolutely loving the physical contact and can’t stop smiling. Baekhyun is really good at this game and is a worthy opponent but it’s also just fun to play the game with someone he cares about. 

“Hello” Kyungsoo (who apparently left his room) says “Who are you?”

“I’m Baekhyun!” Baekhyun pauses the game and smiles at Kyungsoo “Vice-president of the-”

“Why is he here?” Kyungsoo asks turning his attention to Jongin. 

“He’s my... friend so I invited him over to play video games” Jongin answers hoping Baekhyun didn’t pick up on the pause. 

“You didn’t ask me” Kyungsoo states. 

“That’s not one of the rules” Jongin points out “plus we cancelled the rules anyways.” 

Kyungsoo stands there silently deep in thought. Without saying anything at all Kyungsoo sits beside Jongin and watches the screen. Baekhyun unpauses the game and they keep playing. Kyungsoo starts getting really clingy which isn’t that unusual but Jongin didn’t think he’d do it when they have guests over and if anything he’s even more clingy. Kyungsoo is resting his head on Jongin’s shoulder and holding Jongin’s entire arm making it hard to play. Jongin shrugs it off and tries to play regardless. 

“I want to join” Kyungsoo finally says. 

“What?” Jongin asks “You never wanted to play before when I asked you to.”

“I changed my mind” Kyungsoo says “Gimme one of those remotes.”

“We only have two” Baekhyun says. 

“Then I’ll take yours” Kyungsoo says looking at Baekhyun. 

“Kyungsoo can we talk privately?” Jongin asks not knowing what’s going on with Kyungsoo. 

“Absolutely” Kyungsoo smiles... smiles?

Kyungsoo and Jongin walk into Jongin’s room for privacy. 

“Why are you acting weird?” Jongin asks. 

“I don’t like him” Kyungsoo answers “He touches you too much.”

“Well I happen to like that” Jongin says honestly. 

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes and leaves the room without explaining a single thing. Jongin follows him shortly after and sees Kyungsoo talking to Baekhyun who looks very surprised. 

“I get it don’t worry” Baekhyun smiles “Ok bye Jongin I have to go home!”

“What?” Jongin asks watching his crush leave their *not* date because of whatever Kyungsoo said. 

“He has to go” Kyungsoo repeats. 

“Kyungsoo can you tell me what the hell is going on because no matter what you think I really can’t read your mind!” Jongin says frustrated. 

“It’s in my nature to be possessive” Kyungsoo answers “Baekhyun gets it.”

“I don’t, so spell it out for me” Jongin says still angry. 

“You’re mine, no one else should touch you” Kyungsoo says casually before walking up closer to Jongin.

“You can’t decide I’m yours” Jongin scoffs. 

“Fine” Kyungsoo sighs “Jongin, will you be my human?”

“No?” Jongin answers, why does Kyungsoo need a human? He’s perfectly able to handle his own life. Wasn’t this exactly what Kyungsoo hated all along? Being treated like a pet? “Be your own human, you said you’re not a cat.”

Kyungsoo huffs and walks into his own room. 

“I still have no idea what happened!” Jongin yells. 

Jongin feels his phone vibrate and he sees he has a text message. 

**Baekhyun:** hey sorry I forgot how possessive cats can be. 

**Baekhyun:** I hope he doesn’t hate me cause I really didn’t know 

**Jongin:** I don’t get why he got all huffy 

**Baekhyun:** well for once this isn’t a Kyungsoo thing, cat hybrids are just really possessive of their people. 

**Jongin:** I’m not his, I’m my own person! I can talk to whoever I want! 

**Baekhyun:** I don’t expect you to understand right away but that’s just not how he sees it. 

**Baekhyun:** It’s mostly because your relationship is new, he’ll get used to it with time

 **Baekhyun:** I know from a human point of view it seems wrong but you should try to respect his wishes because you can’t understand the pain it causes

**Jongin:** so being his friend means I have to break off ties with all my other friends? 

**Baekhyun:** his friend? 

**Jongin:** yeah? 

**Baekhyun:** don’t you mean boyfriend?

**Jongin:** no? 

**Baekhyun:** ok you need to go talk to him because there’s a huge lack of communication. 

Boyfriend? Kyungsoo thinks they’re dating? 

“Kyungsoo we need to talk!” Jongin says opening Kyungsoo’s bedroom door. 

“Are you going to stop being stupid?” Kyungsoo asks from within his fort. 

“Are you going to tell me when we started dating?” Jongin asks “cause I didn’t get the memo.”

“Baekhyun has a big mouth” Kyungsoo mutters. 

Jongin crawls into the fort to talk to Kyungsoo face to face. 

“Why did you tell him we’re dating?” Jongin asks again. 

“Because he kept touching you even though he could clearly smell that I claimed you” Kyungsoo spits “but apparently dogs can’t tell the difference between a purposeful claim and just casual so whatever. I forgive him.”

“You can’t just claim me, it’s supposed to be mutual” Jongin answers. 

“It’s more like me calling dibs in front of my friends so they shouldn’t ask you out type of claim” Kyungsoo explains “You can still do what you want, but Baekhyun should know I called dibs and keep his doggy paws to himself.” 

“So you like me?” Jongin says still not quite getting it. 

“Yes I like you and I want you to be mine but you basically said I should just date myself ” Kyungsoo says pulling his legs up to his chest “ _be your own human_ thanks a lot Jongin.”

“That’s not what I meant! I didn’t know what you were saying!” Jongin protests. 

“Let me ask again then” Kyungsoo says looking at Jongin “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“Now that you've said it clearly” Jongin starts before he realizes what he’s saying “I uh” 

“Jongin I swear to God if you came in here to reject me again I’ll never make chicken again” Kyungsoo says sending Jongin daggers. 

He likes Baekhyun! Does he? Baekhyun is cute and he always helps Jongin get closer with Kyungsoo... but isn’t Kyungsoo the one he’s been working so hard to get to like him? Jongin is really confused now. He obviously finds Kyungsoo adorable and likes him a lot but does that mean he has _feelings_?

“Can I sleep on it and get back to you?” Jongin asks

Kyungsoo nods. 

Jongin gets up to leave but stops when Kyungsoo puts a hand around his wrist. 

“I know this is probably a bad idea cause you need time and stuff but” Kyungsoo bites his lip “Can you sleep in my bed with me? It always helps when I’m sad.” 

Jongin’s heart pangs. He made Kyungsoo sad? Well, of course, he did cause he’s an idiot. The least he can do is help fix it. 

“Your bed is kinda stuffy with all the blankets, how about my bed instead” Jongin suggests. 

Kyungsoo smiles lightly and starts crawling out of the fort. 

~=+•+=~

**Jongin:** Mom I need some advice

  
  


**Mom:** Are you in trouble?

**Jongin:** No nothing like that 

**Jongin:** It’s... boy trouble?

**Mom:** Did Baekhyunnie do something wrong? I really thought he was going to be good to you

**Jongin:** It’s not Baekhyun

 **Jongin:** A few days ago I found out my roommate likes me

**Mom:** Aww how cute!

 **Mom:** What’s the issue then?

**Jongin:** Well I don’t know if I like him

**Mom:** You don’t know?

 **Mom:** Nini you talk about him almost everyday

 **Mom:** “Kyungsoo bought me a giant teddy bear, he doesn’t hate me!” “Kyungsoo said we’re friends mom I’m so happy!” “He purrs when we cuddle”

 **Mom:** It was so obvious I thought you didn’t say it because you were trying to get over him because he wasn’t interested or something and you didn’t want to bring up that pain.

**Jongin:** Do I really talk about him that much?

**Mom:** About as much as your first crush in middle school

**Jongin:** How did I not notice...

**Mom:** I think you were so wrapped up in trying to get him to like you that you didn’t realize why you wanted him to like you.

 **Mom:** You should spend some time with him and see if you have an epiphany about your feelings

**Jongin:** Should I ask for a date? 

**Mom:** That sounds like a great idea honey

 **Mom:** Don’t worry about coming home this weekend, just stay there and enjoy your time with him

 **Mom:** I want to see you next week though

**Jongin:** Thanks mom

 **Jongin:** I love you

**Mom:** I love you too, now get to sleep, it’s late!

Jongin listens to his mom and falls asleep within a few minutes, he was more tired than he thought. He wakes up when the light of the sun streams into his eyes. He doesn’t really want to get out of bed so he just stays in bed and mentally plans a date Kyungsoo would enjoy, that they would both enjoy.

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo says walking into Jongin’s room and looking up at him “Why are you here? Didn’t you go home?”

Jongin climbs down his bed to talk to Kyungsoo properly. Kyungsoo briefly looks at Jongin’s shirtless chest before looking away uncomfortably and Jongin smirks noticing the effect he has on Kyungsoo.

“I decided to stay here this week” Jongin says not revealing the whole truth “Why did you come into my room?”

“To-” Kyungsoo says running his hand through his hair nervously “To uh see if you were here”

“Then why were you surprised to see me?” Jongin smirks, he can tell when Kyungsoo is lying. 

“I have homework” Kyungsoo says ignoring the question and walking out of the room. 

“Kyungsoo” Jongin pouts which makes Kyungsoo pause “I thought you trusted me.”

“Fine” Kyungsoo sighs “When you’re gone I kind of... I don’t know, miss you or something? I like to sit here with your teddies cause it’s nice.”

“A month ago I would have never guessed you were such a softie” Jongin smiles “It’s cute.”

“I’m not a softie and I’m not cute” Kyungsoo pouts, ironically cutely as if he meant to invalidate his argument. 

“You’re cute, take the compliment” Jongin laughs “Now do you want to know why I’m staying here this weekend?”

“Why?” Kyungsoo says watching anxiously as Jongin walks closer to him. 

“If you’d like, I thought we could go on a date but we’ll have to get dressed.” Jongin says a little nervous that Kyungsoo might be over him by now or maybe he just hates dates. 

“I’m not going to any fancy restaurants” Kyungsoo frowns “I don’t have a suit in the dorm.”

“Nothing fancy, I think you’ll like it” Jongin smiles, he hasn’t been turned down “Sweater and jeans will be perfect.”

“Ok” Kyungsoo nods before leaving the room, probably to grab a sweater to put over his t-shirt. 

Jongin looks through his closet and picks out a fitted white turtleneck, an oversized V neck cream sweater and some light washed skinny jeans. Once he’s dressed he walks into the main living area and sees Kyungsoo with his adorable glasses on as well as black jeans and a grey sweater that looks suspiciously similar. 

“Is that my teddybear sweater?” Jongin says looking at Kyungsoo. 

“It might be...” Kyungsoo blushes “Are you ready to go?”

“How many sweaters have you stolen exactly?” Jongin smirks. 

“Where are we going?” Kyungsoo asks ignoring Jongin. 

“Can’t tell you” Jongin smiles before walking to get his car keys “You’ll see when we get there.”

They get in Jongin’s car and he drives them out of the city. Kyungsoo gets more and more concerned the farther they go. Eventually, Jongin pulls into a dirt road parking lot and parks the car. 

“Snow White’s Sanctuary?” Kyungsoo asks reading the sign. 

“We can go feed the deer” Jongin smiles. 

“There are deer to feed?” Kyungsoo asks trying to hide his excitement. 

“I saw an article about it online” Jongin says walking toward the entrance “When I read about it, I thought you’d like it and when I decided to plan a date, it seemed perfect.”

“And you said I’m the softie” Kyungsoo whispers “Let’s go feed some deer.”

They walk into the building and buy some grass as well as carrots. They both walk into the feeding area once the employees go over all the rules and regulations. 

“So do we just kinda walk towards them or?” Jongin says before a deer approaches Kyungsoo. 

“I think she likes me” Kyungsoo smiles as he feeds some grass to the deer. 

“Here miss deer I have grass too” Jongin says putting his grass in front of the deer. 

The deer immediately leaves and runs away. 

“Great” Jongin sighs “Deer hate me.”

“They don’t hate you, you just have to be a little calmer” Kyungsoo explains “If we stand farther apart they’ll probably feel more comfortable.” 

“But this is a date” Jongin pouts. 

“We can still talk Jonginnie, there’s no one else here” Kyungsoo points out. 

“Jonginnie?” Jongin smiles.

Kyungsoo laughs and walks away towards a small group of deer. Jongin sees a little baby deer and decides to befriend her. The little deer seems apprehensive so Jongin walks very slowly while showing the baby a carrot. 

“I’m going to follow you until you like me” Jongin whispers to little deer “That’s what I did with Kyungsoo.”

The little deer actually does start eating the carrot and Jongin tries to pet the little deer’s head but once she finishes the carrot she runs back to a larger deer which is probably her mom. 

“My deer ran away” Jongin pouts before looking towards Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo is sitting on a bench with a bunch of deer around him. Jongin watches as Kyungsoo leans forward and kisses the head of one of the deer. Kyungsoo’s so gentle and loving with the deer and Jongin has seen this side of him before, it’s one of the reasons he enjoys spending time with him, but he doesn’t get to see it all too often. It’s a shame Kyungsoo doesn’t let anyone see him like this. Kyungsoo must think he seems weak or vulnerable but Jongin wishes he could get past it and just be happy. 

“This is our date yet you’re kissing the deer” Jongin says watching Kyungsoo. 

“Are you jealous of a deer?” Kyungsoo laughs. 

Jongin blushes realizing he kinda is. Jongin likes physical affection, not just in a romantic way he likes hugs and stuff from his family and friends. He does get some cuddles from Kyungsoo but it’s not nearly as much as he does with his other friends. He gets that some people just don’t like skinship but Jongin has a feeling that’s not why Kyungsoo doesn’t hug him often. 

While Jongin is deep in his thoughts, Kyungsoo gets up off the bench and goes up on his tippy toes to kiss Jongin’s forehead. 

“There now you don’t have to be jealous” Kyungsoo smiles. 

Jongin has forgotten how to breathe. No really. Are you supposed to eat the air? Wait no, that's frogs. Not only has Jongin forgotten how to breathe but his heart is doing a weird thing where he can hear it beating in his ears. Is he dying? 

“Jongin you ok?” Kyungsoo laughs. 

“I uh” Jongin says snapping out of his daze before a smile spreads across his face “I’m not sure.”

“You’re ridiculous” Kyungsoo teases playfully. 

“Why do you like me?” Jongin asks suddenly needing validation since he can feel himself falling for Kyungsoo faster than Chanyeol falls to the ground when he hears a joke. It might just be months of ignored emotions all crashing on him at once but Jongin can’t be bothered to care about the reason. 

“Ah um” Kyungsoo says a little awkwardly “I have trust issues, you know that but you never tried to hurt me. After a little while, I realized you just had a really kind heart and would never intentionally hurt me. There were things about you I liked. You’re considerate and funny. But that still wasn’t really enough for me to open up, but after you stood up for me with those dicks in the hall I don’t know I just felt like I was safe when you were around. I haven’t felt that way with anyone except my family. Then I started to notice all these little things about you that made me smile. The way scrunch your face up when you’re confused. The way you laugh way too loud for no reason. They’re dumb little things and I don’t even know why I like them but I do. I want to be around you a lot because it’s when I’m happiest.” 

“Can I hug you?” Jongin whispers overwhelmed by the confession. 

Kyungsoo nods and walks forwards wrapping his arms around Jongin and rests his chin on Jongin’s shoulder. Jongin wraps his arms around Kyungsoo and pulls him in close loving the feeling. Kyungsoo rather quickly starts to purr and Jongin smiles. Best first date ever. 

~=+•+=~

Turns out Kyungsoo is way more cuddly than Jongin ever thought. Since they’ve started dating it’s like Kyungsoo’s not afraid to show the ‘real him’. He smiles a lot more and if he’s in the same room as Jongin he’ll find a way to hold his hand or rest his head on him. Even in class which was surprising. It’s gotten to the point where Jongin has noticed it’s not always just because Kyungsoo likes the physical attention, it’s to make a statement to everyone around them. 

Jongin knew Baekhyun said Kyungsoo was possessive but generally Jongin is pretty possessive too. He is a bit prone to jealousy and he has been broken up with for being “too clingy” but Kyungsoo’s past that level. Even Jongin is finding their PDA a little uncomfortable. Even in a library, Kyungsoo is bold enough to grab Jongin’s hand and act all lovey-dovey.

“Um Kyungsoo?” Jongin says as Kyungsoo grabs his right hand. 

“Hmm?” Kyungsoo hums writing notes in his notebook. 

“I kinda need this hand to do the homework” Jongin says waiting for Kyungsoo to let go “I’m not left-handed.”

“Oh sorry” Kyungsoo says letting go before closing his textbook “Should we go to a real movie theatre tonight?” 

“It’s more expensive and less private but if you want sure” Jongin nods finishing his statistical calculations “I don’t care where we have movie night.”

“It would feel more like a real date if we went out” Kyungsoo mentions. 

“I guess if you like it better than we can do that” Jongin agreed “but you know we don’t have to prove to anyone that we’re going on dates right?”

“Yeah” Kyungsoo says putting his stuff in his backpack “of course we don’t” 

Jongin wants to believe Kyungsoo, he really does but there’s an annoying voice in the back of his head nagging him about how Kyungsoo seems too interested in making a public statement. Maybe it really is a cat thing like Baekhyun said. He would talk to Jongdae and Minseok but seeing as they are both cats, they probably didn’t even notice. Baekhyun also said something about it being more intense when it’s a new relationship, right? Hopefully, Kyungsoo will calm down soon. 

Kyungsoo and Jongin make a quick stop at the house to drop off their school stuff before heading to the theatre. When they get there they both settle on the movie Salut d’Amour because it seems cute, a grumpy old man who doesn’t know anything about romance needs help to woo his elderly neighbour. 

“We should share the popcorn” Kyungsoo states looking at the food bar. 

“Kyungsoo we don’t have to do everything together” Jongin sighs, he really doesn’t want to spend the whole date worrying about whether Kyungsoo actually wants to be here or just wants to show Jongin off like some sort of trophy. “PDA isn’t something other people enjoy, we should be a bit more considerate.”

“It’s just cause it’s cheaper if we buy a big bag instead of two smaller bags” Kyungsoo points out sounding a little sad “but I’ll stop being so touchy if it bothers you.”

“I like it! It just kinda comes off like you’re not doing it for me” Jongin pouts. 

“I’ll keep that in mind” Kyungsoo smiles briefly “So popcorn?”

“Let’s get some pizza too” Jongin agrees. 

Once they get their food they sit in the theatre and watch the movie, however, neither of them were ready for the emotional parts of the movie. They thought it was just a light rom-com but it seems they were wrong. Jongin thought he would be the only one crying but he swears he sees the tears run Kyungsoo’s face in the dim theatre lighting. The more he gets to know Kyungsoo the more he learns how complex he really is. 

The movie ends and they leave the theatre together. As cheesy as it is just by watching Kyungsoo smile, the sadness he felt before just melts away. That’s just science though, seeing any smile will make you happier, it’s not that Jongin is head over heels in love or anything. 

They get back to their dorm and Jongin feels a bit better than when they planned this date. After their little chat, Kyungsoo didn’t do anything that a normal person wouldn’t do. No excessive touching or glaring at anyone who so must as smiles at Jongin. Just a normal date with some hand-holding and comforting hugs after the emotional rollercoaster the movie turned out to be. The second they walk into the dorm though, Jongin is being pulled down by his shirt collar so quick he barely registers what happens when Kyungsoo kisses him. 

“Huh?” Jongin says in a daze like the first time Kyungsoo kissed his forehead. 

“You said I shouldn’t do any “PDA” so I didn’t” Kyungsoo says firmly “I assumed if it was in our dorm that’s not public so it’s fine?” Kyungsoo sounds less sure about the last part. 

“So you kissed me?” Jongin says not following the logic. 

“I wanted to all night but I couldn’t” Kyungsoo blushes. 

“You could have warned me” Jongin says. He would have liked to be aware he was having his first kiss with Kyungsoo. 

“You could have said no” Kyungsoo mumbles. 

“You know the importance of consent so I’m just going to skip past that” Jongin says “When have you known me to turn down anything you’ve wanted to do?” 

“Never” Kyungsoo answers confidently. 

“So then all you have to do is ask” Jongin smiles. 

“You wanted to kiss me too?” Kyungsoo says bringing it back up. 

“Um yeah” Jongin says suddenly feeling exposed for some reason. 

“So if we kissed again that would be?” Kyungsoo says letting Jongin finish the sentence. 

“That would be really nice.” Jongin smiles. 

Kyungsoo walks up to Jongin and places his arms around Jongin’s neck to fix their height difference. Jongin can feel his heart rate accelerate into ludicrous speed as Kyungsoo closes the gap. Despite Jongin’s initial reaction as soon as he feels Kyungsoo’s plush lips against his own he calms down and smiles into the kiss. He didn’t realize just how much he wanted to kiss Kyungsoo until this moment. The feeling is absolutely addicting. This soft and pure kiss is a much better first kiss than the one Kyungsoo stole when Jongin had no idea what was going on. 

After a few hours or seconds, Jongin can’t really tell, Kyungsoo pulls back and smiles lovingly at Kyungsoo. 

“That wasn’t nice” Jongin says and watches as fear washes over Kyungsoo’s face “it was perfect.”

“Not funny” Kyungsoo glares before heading to his room. 

Jongin somehow feels it comforting that in some ways Kyungsoo hasn’t changed at all. 

~=+•+=~

“Alright see you tonight” Jongin says grabbing his keys. 

“Where are you going?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“The hybrid club meeting?” Jongin says confused, it’s not like Jongin doesn’t go every week but Kyungsoo has never asked before. Why does Kyungsoo suddenly want to know? Just cause they went on two dates?

“With Baekhyun” Kyungsoo says in an accusatory tone. 

“Well yeah he’s the vice-president” Jongin says still confused, you think by now Jongin would be able to understand Kyungsoo but he still often feels lost. 

“You should just stay here” Kyungsoo says walking into the kitchen “I’ll make lunch.”

“Not that doesn’t sound nice but I told them I was going and I don’t want to bail last minute” Jongin says opening the door. 

“Don’t go” Kyungsoo says sternly. 

“Why not?” Jongin asks closing the door.

“Because I don’t want you to” Kyungsoo answers emotionless. 

“But I do” Jongin replies “It’s my life Kyungsoo, not yours.”

“Do I not matter to you?” Kyungsoo asks harshly “I’m telling you not to go, you shouldn’t go.”

“Why are you being like this? All I want to do is hang out with my friends, I’m not doing anything wrong!” Jongin says frustrated “I swear to god Kyungsoo if I had known you’d be like this when I asked you out I never would have done it! You used to be so sweet and I mean I had to work really hard to get you to talk to me but it was better than this. I thought you got it out of your system but obviously you haven’t. Now I can’t even see my friends? Really? You’ve become so different, any time you're nice to me it’s like you have something to prove. I feel like I don’t know who you are.”

“I’ve never done this before!” Kyungsoo yells looking defeated “I’m scared of losing you all the time and I don’t know how to handle ok? So I’m sorry I’m acting weird but it’s because I feel weird and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“You’ve never dated anyone before? Like not even one date?” Jongin asks taken back by Kyungsoo’s sudden confession.

“No dates not even crushes” Kyungsoo sighs “I’m sorry Jonginnie I’m just- I just want you with me all the time and I hate the idea of someone coming between us. I just don’t know how to shut my brain up and I get caught up in all the thoughts flying around in my brain. I know this is a hybrid thing and I need to get past it because it’s not healthy for a relationship. I know that, I do it’s just... hard.” 

“So for once, it’s not my fault?” Jongin smiles trying to lighten the mood. 

“Just this once” Kyungsoo smiles back feeling a bit better. 

“I have a compromise that might just work for now” Jongin says “We can go to the meeting together. No need to worry because you’ll be right there, probably holding my hand.” 

“Ok” Kyungsoo agrees “and I’ll get better at controlling this whole extreme jealousy thing... or I’ll try at least.” 

On their way to the meeting, Jongin tells Kyungsoo all about the different members. He tries to avoid Baekhyun as much as possible to not upset Kyungsoo anymore but he makes sure Kyungsoo will have a pretty good understanding of who everyone is before he even meets them. 

Kyungsoo seems to feel more comfortable the more Jongin talks to him. Maybe he realizes there’s no real threat or something but Jongin is just happy Kyungsoo’s more comfortable. 

“Hi guys” Jongin says walking into the room “I brought Kyungsoo I hope that’s ok.”

“So this is Kyungsoo” Junmyeon says in a cheery tone “It’s nice to finally meet you, we’ve heard about you a lot.”

Jongin blushes, Junmyeon is just as embarrassing as his actual parents. Jongin laughs nervously before sitting in his chair, Kyungsoo follows him and sits in the chair beside him. 

“I’m Junmyeon the club president” Junmyeon introduces himself. 

“Yes, Jongin told me about all of you” Kyungsoo nods with a polite smile. 

“So to what do we owe the pleasure of having Jongin’s roommate in our club meeting today?” Chanyeol asks. 

“Boyfriend” Kyungsoo corrects. 

“Boyfriend?” Jongin asks this is a first to him. Not that he’s against it but they haven’t explicitly discussed it before. 

“Yes” Kyungsoo answers him. 

“Jongin told us a lot about you but he doesn’t seem to know all that much, so Minseok and I were really curious about one thing” Jongdae explains “If you don’t mind telling us, what breed are you?”

“Bombay” Kyungsoo answers sounding sad, Jongin’s not sure why that would make Kyungsoo sad but he holds his hand to comfort him. 

“That would explain the clinginess” Baekhyun laughs. 

“Bombay?” Jongdae asks sounding concerned “Not a Manx?”

“Or Cymric?” Minseok continues. 

“Uh no” Kyungsoo says looking away, clearly uncomfortable. 

“Kyungsoo we didn’t know, I’m sorry you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to” Jongdae says softly. 

“For all the people who have no idea what’s going on, do you mind telling us?” Junmyeon asks. 

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin asks, prompting Kyungsoo to answer. 

“It’s not a big deal” Minseok says to the group “We can move on to our next discussion topic.”

“It’s ok I can tell you” Kyungsoo says taking a deep breath “In elementary school until about 4th grade I was bullied. Nothing too bad, I mean bullying is always bad but it was just stupid kids saying dumb things. I put up with it because I didn’t really have a choice, none of the teachers took it seriously. They told me there’s nothing wrong with calling me a cat because I am one.” 

“That’s awful” Yixing says sympathetically “Kids can be really cruel.”

“Adults can be too” Kyungsoo points out before continuing his story “One day in 4th grade I got really tired of all the comments so I yelled back at one of them. Just everything I’ve ever wanted to say. I stood up for myself for once and it felt good. It didn’t last long though because turns out the kid didn’t like being yelled at by a ‘pet’ so he pushed me to the ground and I landed on a rock. It hurt a lot so my parents came to pick me up and brought me to a hospital. Turns out I actually broke my tail. They had to amputate it. So yeah, I’m a Bombay but I don’t have a tail. After that, I was just homeschooled till university because my parents didn’t trust the teachers.”

So the bully Jongin punched wasn’t the first jerk to talk to Kyungsoo like that? Jongin has no idea what to say. No wonder Kyungsoo has trust issues, who lives through that and isn’t afraid of non-hybrids? Jongin doesn’t know how Kyungsoo seems so unaffected after telling that story and reliving it. Jongin feels his heart clench and it’s not even his memory. 

“Is university your first time back at school?” Yixing asks. 

“Yeah but it’s definitely better than elementary school” Kyungsoo says smiling at Jongin. 

He smiles back at Kyungsoo and can’t help but feel like he’s finally understanding exactly what Kyungsoo means. At the same time though he’s overwhelmed with the idea that he’s the reason Kyungsoo’s university experience is better than elementary. Sure that’s not a high bar but he knows Kyungsoo is happy here and to think that’s because of him is a lot to process. He might have known it intellectually but he’s never thought about it too deeply. 

“Did you just take a picture?” Kyungsoo asks his usual grumbly voice after a white flash goes off. 

“Yes” Chanyeol admits “You can’t act that cute and expect me not to take a picture.”

“Delete it” Kyungsoo says with false anger, Jongin can tell the difference. 

“Nope” Chanyeol laughs. 

Kyungsoo gets up off his chair to take the phone from Chanyeol but Chanyeol catches on and sprints away. Kyungsoo ends up chasing Chanyeol around the room while everyone laughs until Chanyeol makes use of his height and holds the phone up where Kyungsoo can’t reach. Kyungsoo’s immediate reaction is to pinch Chanyeol who falls to the ground dramatically. Kyungsoo laughs as he takes the phone from Chanyeol. 

“It’s locked” Kyungsoo stops laughing as he realizes he had no chance of deleting the photo in the first place. 

“So can I have my phone back” Chanyeol laughs from the ground. 

“Fine” Kyungsoo sighs before giving it back “Just don’t post that anywhere or you’ll hear from my lawyers.”

“I wouldn’t mess with him Chanyeol, I’m pretty sure his family owns the school” Baekhyun warns seriously. 

“Wha-?” Kyungsoo starts sitting back beside Jongin. 

“Let him live in his fantasy world” Jongin whispers with a mischievous smile. 

After that Kyungsoo seems perfectly comfortable around everyone, friendly even. Jongin would be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous. It took him a month to get to that level with Kyungsoo and all it took for everyone else was Kyungsoo attacking Chanyeol. He’s happy though, Kyungsoo getting along with everyone means he can bring Kyungsoo more often. Jongin smiles thinking about how lucky he is that this has all worked out the way it has. Sure there were a lot of obstacles and there will probably be even more but he wouldn’t take any of this experience back. He’s glad Kyungsoo was assigned as his roommate. 

“We have one last thing to go over for this week.” Junmyeon says reading off his notebook “What are you guys doing for reading week?”

“Nothing” Jongin and Kyungsoo at the same time. 

“You’re not going to see your family?” Kyungsoo asks puzzled. 

“No they’re going to visit my sister in Germany, she only has one guest room and there’s no way I’m spending a week on a couch.” Jongin answers “What about you? You haven’t seen your family since school started.”

“They’re on a cruise. They planned it a year ago when they didn’t know when reading week was going to be.” Kyungsoo explains. 

“So Jongin and Kyungsoo are going on a honeymoon then, anyone else? I’m going skiing” Baekhyun answers.

“I’m going to volunteer building houses with habitat for humanity” Junmyeon answers. 

“Of course you are” Minseok laughs “Do you do anything for yourself?"

“I’m trying to make the world a better place and since I live in this world, yes it's for me too” Junmyeon answers before everyone laughs at his cheesy answer. 

“I’m just going back home” Yixing answers. 

“Us too” Jongdae answers for him and Minseok. 

“Chanyeol?” Jongin asks “What about you?”

“I’m going to study? Isn’t that the point of it?” Chanyeol says seeming unsure. 

“Absolutely not!” Baekhyun protests “You can come skiing with me, my brother ditched us to spend time planning his wedding so we have an extra ticket.”

“Ok well seems like that’s settled” Junmyeon smiles “See you all after the break!”

Once Jongin and Kyungsoo get home, Jongin thinks about his reading week plans again. Staying in the dorm with Kyungsoo would be fine but shouldn’t they try something to do something different?

“You know this might be a terrible idea but” Jongin says getting Kyungsoo’s attention “Can we just go on a camping trip for reading week? Just us two?”

“Let’s do it” Kyungsoo smiles.


	3. Step 3: Success

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EPILOGUE  
> (This is just me wanting more fluff in this fic but it kinda stands alone I guess so I’m calling it an epilogue) 

“How did you plan this so quickly?” Kyungsoo asks as they drive up to their camping site. 

“I have a sister who works for a travel agency and she sent over a huge document full of camping plans” Jongin smiles putting the car in park. 

“Travel agents handle camping trips?” Kyungsoo asks “I thought they just did fancy hotels.”

“She mostly does fancy hotels but apparently I lot of people think camping is really romantic” Jongin smirks “Well I mean not real camping with bears or whatever, but glamping with showers and bathrooms on the camping ground, even electrical outlets. All the nature with the benefits of the 21st century, that’s romantic.”

“We’ll see about that” Kyungsoo laughs getting out of the car. 

Jongin and Kyungsoo unpack the tent they borrowed from Yixing and spend way too much time trying to set it up. There are like 16 polls and 4 of them are slightly smaller but they have trouble keeping track of which is which or where they go. The instructions are all in Chinese because Yixing’s family bought it in China, so it’s not like the instructions are much help either. 

After 25 minutes, they manage to put the tent up finally and they’re too annoyed to bother setting up the air matters or anything else so they just put it all in the tent. 

“So what now?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“There’s a nature trail nearby” Jongin smiles “I thought we could do some bird watching and...” Jongin picks up a camera from his backpack “We could take polaroids!” 

“That sounds cute” Kyungsoo smiles looking at the camera “Let’s get going.”

Together Kyungsoo and Jongin walk away from their camping site and head towards the bird-watching trail. Once they reach the start of the trail Jongin pulls out two packets of pages. 

“I brought these guides that show what kinds of birds we could find” Jongin says giving one of the packets to Kyungsoo “That way we’ll know what we’re looking at.”

“Cool we can see who finds more birds!” Kyungsoo says taking the packet “What does the winner get?” 

“I didn’t really mean it as a competition” Jongin says a little confused. 

“But wouldn’t that be so much more fun?” Kyungsoo suggests. 

“I guess but how are we going to take cute polaroids?” Jongin pouts. 

“Tell you what, every ten birds you find, we’ll take a picture.” Kyungsoo suggests, Jongin pouts even more dramatically “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of opportunities to take photos during this trip, we don’t want to use all the film at once.”

“Fine” Jongin says continue to pout “but just so you know I’ll find 120 birds.”

“You won’t find more than 15” Kyungsoo laughs “Repeats don’t count.” 

Unlike what Jongin thought, Kyungsoo stayed right beside him as they walked slowly looking for birds in the trees. As it turns out, even if they were looking at the exact same trees, Kyungsoo’s slightly better sight and hearing seems to give him the most unfair advantage. Jongin found 3 birds and Kyungsoo found 19. Plus, all of Jongin’s birds were bright colours that made them stand out against the colour of the trees, he’s clearly not gifted at bird watching. 

“This isn’t fair I’ll never find 10 birds.” Jongin whines. 

“Not if you keep missing so many” Kyungsoo laughs “I can’t believe you haven’t seen or heard any of the chickadees.”

“Are you going easy on me?” Jongin asks. 

“Well, I don’t think it’s really fair since my vision is better than yours” Kyungsoo admits “I’m creating a level playing field.”

“You’re the one who created this competition” Jongin whines again “I wanted to do it together.”

“Ok well, there’s a little bird on that oak tree” Kyungsoo says pointing to the tree “If you can find it, we’ll take a picture.”

“And if I can’t?” Jongin asks. 

“Have some faith” Kyungsoo smiles at his boyfriend “It’s little and has a little black head.”

“Little bird with a black head...” Jongin says looking through the tree before spotting 2 little light grey birds with black heads bopping around on a branch. The cute little birds open their mouths and sing their signature song “Oh my god are they the ones who’ve been saying “cheeseburger” this whole time?”

“Cheeseburger?” Kyungsoo asks looking at Jongin like he’s insane. 

“Yeah like  _ cheeseburger _ ” Jongin says imitating the bird’s song. 

“That is them yeah” Kyungsoo laughs “Cheeseburger wow, are you hungry?”

“A bit and I have a picnic planned for after this but I found the bird so we can take a picture right?” Jongin says excitedly.

“Sure” Kyungsoo smiles.

Jongin takes the camera out of the bag. Kyungsoo puts an arm around Jongin and poses for the cute couple photo. Jongin holds the polaroid camera at an angle that should get them both in the shot. Selfies without screen displays aren’t easy to set up and Jongin just hopes this works out. 

“Ok on three, 1, 2, 3” Jongin says before he hits the shutter button. Just before he hits the button Kyungsoo quickly moves to kiss Jongin’s cheek so Jongin’s reaction is captured in the photo. Even though they’ve kissed more than once it caught Jongin off guard and Jongin blushes at the unexpected act of affection. 

Kyungsoo takes the black photo off the camera and shakes it to make the image appear faster. Once the image appears Kyungsoo smiles widely, it worked out perfectly. Kyungsoo’s eyes convey the happiness and mischief he was feeling and Jongin looks shocked and flustered.

“It’s perfect” Kyungsoo smiles before putting the image in a ziplock bag to keep it safe “Let’s go eat.”

The couple walks back to their camping site and Jongin brings out the picnic basket he packed for today. Jongin has a bunch of non-perishables for the week, but for the first day, he packed cheeses, fruits (including grapes since he knows better now), fancy crackers, a whole romantic picnic. Including a nice little red and white checkered blanket to sit on. 

“Here it is!” Jongin says pulling the basket from out of their tent “I got that one imported soft cheese from France that you like so much.”

“You act like Rondelé is a fancy cheese for snobs” Kyungsoo laughs “It comes in a plastic container.”

“It’s 6$ a container. I think that’s snobby” Jongin retorts before looking in the picnic basket. Jongin sees over a hundred tiny ants crawling around inside. “AH”

Jongin drops the basket and backs up. 

“What?” Kyungsoo asks worriedly. 

“The ants uh crawled in and ate the food” Jongin says hoping Kyungsoo won’t get mad that Jongin didn’t pack the food properly or leave in the car where they ants couldn’t get to it. 

“Well the cheese is sealed, is there anything else they didn’t crawl on?” Kyungsoo asks not sounding disappointed at all. 

“Uh yeah... pack of crackers... juice boxes...” Jongin says looking through the basket. 

“Juice boxes?” Kyungsoo asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“What? Juice boxes are good! It’s not like I could buy wine I’m still 17.” Jongin defends “I have some chocolate too... uh some prosciutto?” 

“Well that all we need” Kyungsoo smiles “Let’s eat and ditch the other food in a trash bag.”

Jongin and Kyungsoo take out the good food and shake the ants off the packaged food. They put aside the fruits and a baguette off to the side. After that they set up the picnic and start eating. Although the food selection is a little more limited than Jongin had hoped it’s still plenty enough for lunch. 

“You know what I was thinking we could do after this?” Kyungsoo says spreading cheese on a cracker. 

“What?” Jongin asks finishing his juice box, like the mature almost-adult he is. 

“I saw a lake on the map we passed on the way to the trail” Kyungsoo says taking a bite of his cracker “We could go swimming.”

“It’s probably pretty cold” Jongin mentions. 

“Only one way to find out” Kyungsoo smiles. 

After they finish their lunch, they change into their swim stuff, grab some towels and walk towards the lake. 

“Kyungsoo it says the beach is closed after September, shouldn’t we just go to the hot tub? This is a glamping place after all.” 

“No way there’s definitely other people in the hot tub and I do not want to deal with other people.” Kyungsoo shakes his head “Especially not without a hoodie or hat or something.”

Jongin quickly remembers the dicks at school and their reaction to Kyungsoo’s ears. No hot tub then. 

“This is perfect, it’s just us” Kyungsoo says looking at the empty lake beach. 

“We’re going to get hypothermia” Jongin laughs. 

“Then we’ll just have to cuddle for warmth” Kyungsoo smiles “Plus I don’t think you can get hypothermia when it’s 24 celsius out.”

“Fine” Jongin grumbles. 

Kyungsoo grabs Jongin’s hands and runs into the water with him. 

“I knew the water was cold” Jongin whines as he’s up to his mid-thigh in the lake. 

“It won’t be once we get used to it, we just have to go in quickly.” Kyungsoo explains. 

“I don’t like that idea” Jongin pouts. 

“Here I’ll help” Kyungsoo says before splashing Jongin with a big wave of water. 

Jongin yells in surprise because the water is  _ really _ cold. Jongin responds by stepping forward and trapping Kyungsoo in a tight bear hug. Before Kyungsoo has a chance to catch on Jongin lets himself fall into the water bringing Kyungsoo with him. 

“Let me go!” Kyungsoo says wiggling in Jongin’s hold. 

“No, you’re warm” Jongin laughs as he sits in cold water. 

“You made your point” Kyungsoo agrees “this really isn’t beach weather.”

“But it’s so nice and private” Jongin mocks not letting go. 

“If you let go we can do something fun” Kyungsoo says trying to bribe Jongin. 

“Oh?” Jongin smirks. 

“Not like that!” Kyungsoo exclaims with a smile “We can make a fire, something warm.”

“No” Jongin pouts “I’m not letting go.”

Kyungsoo stops struggling and Jongin looks at him confused. Kyungsoo just smiles at him before leaning in and pressing his lips softly against Jongin’s. Jongin takes a second to process before he starts kissing back. He lets his grip loosen to bring a hand behind Kyungsoo’s neck but as soon as he does Kyungsoo sprints of out the hold and leaves Jongin alone in the water. 

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin yells from the water “Can’t we at least play one game? We’re already in the water.”

“Ok” Kyungsoo laughs before walking back toward Jongin “what do you want to play?” 

“Marco Polo” Jongin smiles. 

“I guess that’s probably all we can do with two people huh” Kyungsoo says “Ok we can play a few rounds but it is really cold.”

“Best 2 out of 3 wins.” Jongin smirks. 

They end up playing till the best 5 out of 9 because neither of them really wanted to give up. By the time Jongin won his 5th round though, they are both shivering and decide to call it quits. 

They walk out of the cold water and towel off in the sun hoping it can warm them a bit. Jongin finishes drying his hair and reaches for his t-shirt when he hears a shutter. 

"Did you just take a picture?" Jongin asks. 

"Yup" Kyungsoo smiles taking the polaroid from the camera "It seemed like a perfect time."

"Before I put my shirt on?" Jongin cocks an eyebrow before pulling his t-shirt over his head.

"Maybe" Kyungsoo says putting the photo in the plastic bag with the other polaroid. 

“You know I hope you weren’t kidding about could cuddle for warmth cause I could really use it” Jongin saying holding the towel around his shoulders hoping it can act as a blanket of some sort. 

“Sure we can once we set up the bed.” Kyungsoo nods. 

Kyungsoo stops towelling himself off and looks down at Jongin’s leg. His smile fades and Jongin gets worried. 

“What?” Jongin says looking down but not seeing anything. 

“You uh” Kyungsoo says trying to find the words “you have a leech stuck to you.”

“A leech?” Jongin says with wide eyes “GET IT OFF!”

Jongin unceremoniously plops down on the ground to investigate the leg Kyungsoo was looking at. Sure enough on the back of his calf, there’s a black blood-sucker stuck to him. 

“Don’t touch it!” Kyungsoo yells before looking through Jongin’s backpack. 

“Why not!” Jongin says starting to freak out. 

“If you hurt it, it can throw up into your blood.” Kyungsoo explains before walking towards Jongin with a tiny first aid kit and a credit card. 

“You’re gonna bribe it to stop?” Jongin says looking at the card “I don’t think it takes credit Kyungsoo.”

“Part of my homeschooling was first aid in various settings” Kyungsoo explains sliding the credit card along Jongin’s calf towards the leech “this is the safest way to get rid of leeches.”

Once Kyungsoo slides the credit card under the leeches mouth, the leech falls off and Kyungsoo throws it back into the lake. Jongin thought it was over but Kyungsoo starts getting gauze pads out from the first aid kit. Jongin looks at his leg and sees that where the leech was attached is now bleeding. A lot. 

“Leeches have anticoagulants” Kyungsoo explains before leaning the wound and wrapping it with gauze and a bandage to keep the gauze in place “it shouldn’t bleed for more than a few hours.”

“Hours?” Jongin says worriedly. 

“Don’t worry it was just one leech.” Kyungsoo assures him “you’ll be fine.”

“Should I keep my leg up or something?” Jongin asks. 

“You’re not bleeding that much but if you want we can drive to a walk-in clinic and wait hours for a nurse to tell you that.” Kyungsoo teases. 

“No it’s fine” Jongin says not wanting to sound like a baby. 

“Come on” Kyungsoo says standing up “We have a bed to set up unless you don’t want to cuddle anymore.”

“No, I do!” Jongin says excitedly standing up already forgetting about the little bite on his leg. 

The lake isn’t far from their campsite so it’s a very short walk back. 

To set up their air mattress they have to take everything out of the tent. Once they’ve made the room Jongin takes the mattress out of its storage sleeve. 

“Could you pass the pump?” Jongin asks Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo looks through the pile of stuff for something that looks like a pump but doesn’t find anything. Sleeping bag, food, plastic plates, chargers but no pump. 

“Did you leave it in the car?” Kyungsoo asks. 

“No?” Jongin says remembering he took every last thing out of the car “Is it not there?”

“No” Kyungsoo says certain there’s no pump of any kind in their pile of stuff. 

“Um well I guess I can blow it up with my breath” Jongin says not wanting yet another thing to go wrong on the trip him planned. 

“You’ll hurt yourself and that would take forever” Kyungsoo disagrees “it’s fine we can just sleep with the sleeping bags.”

“Sleeping bag singular” Jongin corrects “it’s a couple’s sleeping bag, I thought it would be cute.”

“I’m sure it will be” Kyungsoo laughs at Jongin’s cheesiness “well let’s just unroll that then and put it in.” 

“I could ask some of our campsite neighbours if they have some kind of pump” Jongin suggests. 

“Sure” Kyungsoo nods “I can keep setting everything up.”

Jongin leaves to see if anyone could lend them some sort of pump while Kyungsoo arranges their food, clothes, supplies, pillows etc in a more organised way so once the air mattress is set up it will be easy to put it all in the tent. It doesn’t take too long and Kyungsoo finds himself just waiting for Jongin to return. 

“I got a bike pump, it’ll take some time but it’ll work!” Jongin says walking back to their camping site “Turns out one of my friends from high school is here with her girlfriend so they lent it to us.”

“Ok, we can give it a shot” Kyungsoo says forgetting about the few drops of water that landed on him. 

Kyungsoo and Jongin move the deflated air mattress into the tent and start using the bike pump to inflate it. Only one of them can do it at a time but they take turns to be fair. While Kyungsoo is pumping they hear a strange sound that is repeating at irregular intervals. Almost like trees are hitting the tent or something but they can’t really see since they are fully in the shade. 

“If that’s a psycho murderer tapping on the tent walls I’m not gonna be the dumbass who gets out of the tent to look” Kyungsoo jokes, but Jongin doesn’t laugh. 

“Murderer?” Jongin says in a high pitched voice. 

“I- it was a joke Jongin there’s no one out there, if you wanted to murder someone why would you tap on the tent first?” Kyungsoo says rationalizing the situation. 

“Yeah um of course why would they do that?” Jongin smiles but Kyungsoo can tell he's still scared. If Jongin had a tail, it would be between his legs. 

“Fine, here” Kyungsoo says handing Jongin the pump “I’ll go move the branches or whatever.” 

Jongin takes the pump nervously as Kyungsoo leaves the tent. Kyungsoo looks around and it doesn’t look like it’s windy... there are no branches close to the tent either. Kyungsoo figures it’s probably a squirrel or something but he decides to find the bear spray out of Jongin’s backpack in case an angry little animal comes back. He searches through the pockets to try to find the spray but he can’t really remember where Jongin put it. As he’s doing it he feels something land on his neck. He reaches to find out what it is but before he can something else lands on his nose. Rain? 

Within a few seconds, the rain suddenly gets extremely heavy and Kyungsoo has to run back to the tent as fast as he can to prevent getting fully soaked. 

“Oh, it was just rain” Jongin smiles. 

“Yeah and now all of our stuff is getting soaked so I wouldn’t be smiling” Kyungsoo grumbles feeling his uncomfortable in his wet clothes “Go get it!”

“Why me?” Jongin yells. 

“Cause I went out when you thought there was a murderer” Kyungsoo replies “Now go quickly, the more you wait the more everything’s going to get ruined.”

Jongin doesn’t bother arguing anymore because Kyungsoo’s right, the more they wait the more they’ll regret it. Jongin runs out and grabs as many bags as he can before bringing them back to the tent. It takes two trips but he gets everything safely back in the tent. Once he’s done his clothes are completely soaked, the rain is so intense it’s basically like standing under a running shower. 

“Jongin what are you doing come back in here?” Kyungsoo says, looking at Jongin from in the tent. 

“Have you ever watched singing in the rain?” Jongin says ignoring Kyungsoo “I played the lead in my high school’s musical.”

“If you start dancing and slip and fall, I’m not fixing your concussion” Kyungsoo laughs. 

“Come on Kyungsoo once you’re already soaked the rain just feels nice.” Jongin smiles “Dance with me?” 

“We don’t even have any music” Kyungsoo laughs. 

“So we’ll sing it” Jongin says extending his hand towards Kyungsoo “What do you say?” 

“You’re weird” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes before accepting Jongin’s hand and walking out of the tent. 

“And yet you still decided to date me” Jongin says putting his free hand on Kyungsoo’s waist. 

“That’s why I decided to date you.” Kyungsoo says getting into position so they can do some ballroom dancing in the rain like the insane people they apparently are. 

They keep dancing in the rain and laughing at how ridiculous the situation is but regardless they do actually really enjoy it. Kissing in the rain is a bit overrated though. 

The rain stops almost as quickly as it started. In just under 5 minutes the rain stops completely but the clouds are still very dark so it could start again at any moment. 

Kyungsoo goes into the tent quickly to grab their towels and some spare clothes that were luckily not wet because they were at the bottom of the bag. Once they dry off they go into the tent. Jongin continues to inflate the bed and they hear the rain resume. 

“So for dinner, we can have some tuna sandwiches” Jongin suggests. 

“I’ve never made a meal in a tent” Kyungsoo laughs “this will be interesting.”

Kyungsoo finds a little corner of the tent away from the bed where he can make their dinner while Jongin finishes inflating the bed. It’s a cramped space and based on how the rain isn’t stopping this time, it seems like they won’t be leaving till morning. Once the bed is ready, Jongin joins Kyungsoo in the corner to eat their dinner. 

“Do you have any rainy day tent activities planned?” Kyungsoo asks taking a bite of his sandwich. 

“Uh not really but I have a movie downloaded on my phone.” Jongin mentions. 

“Well it’s not Friday but movie night does sound nice” Kyungsoo nods. 

After they finish eating they do just that, they get into their shared sleeping bag and watch “underdog” together. Jongin does have to hold his phone the whole time so they can watch but with the way Kyungsoo is snuggled up beside him, it’s worth it. Plus he can feel Kyungsoo purring and he knows it’s just basic psychology but the sound of Kyungsoo purring makes him so incredibly happy. If Jongin could only hear one sound of the rest of his life, it would be Kyungsoo purring, it's even better than his laughter which is a high bar. 

When the movie ends, Kyungsoo closes his eyes and Jongin wonders if he’s falling asleep. It’s only 9 pm but with everything they’ve gone through Jongin feels pretty tired too. Right as Jongin feels himself drift off a loud sound that shocks him and Kyungsoo awake. 

_ Kiss kiss kiss baby _

_ Hush hush hush baby _

_ Hot hot make it hot and melt me _

_ Give it to me, give it to me oh _

_ Come to me, come to me oh _

_ Give it to me, give it to me oh _

The music is so loud, there’s no way anyone near them will be able to sleep.    
  


“Do you think they’ll stop?” Kyungsoo mumbles sleepily. 

“Probably not” Jongin sighs “Don’t they know everyone can hear them?” 

“We should ask them to turn it down” Kyungsoo says sitting up in the bed “Come on let’s get the umbrellas and go.”

Kyungsoo and Jongin leave their tent to find the source of the sound. It doesn’t take too long since it’s their neighbour. Their tent is brightly lit from inside and the shadows paint a clear image of what’s going on inside. They both feel a little more uncomfortable asking them to turn the sound down but they don’t really have a choice.

“These are my friends who lent me the bike pump” Jongin says seeing the tent. “I thought they were more considerate than that.”

“Maybe they just don’t realize how loud it is” Kyungsoo suggests. 

“ Should we knock?” Jongin whispers 

“You can’t knock on a tent Jonginnie” Kyungsoo laughs “Excuse me, do you guys mind keeping it down?” 

The girls inside turn off the music and open their tent to speak to Kyungsoo. 

“Oh Nini!” Nayeon smiles “Do you have our bike pump?”

“Is that what this is about?” Kyungsoo asks wondering why anyone would do this for a bike pump. 

“It’s way more fun than leaving our tent to ask you guys” Nayeon smiles “I didn’t know you were here with a friend Nini.”

“Boyfriend” Kyungsoo corrects.

“Nayeon stop bothering them” Jeongyeon says from inside. 

“Fine” Nayeon laughs “Could we please have the pump back?” 

“I’ll get it.” Kyungsoo offers. 

“Jongin should get it, I want to interview your boyfriend.” Nayeon smirks. 

“Nayeon-” Jongin whines. 

“It’s fine you can go get it” Kyungsoo sighs. 

“How did you two meet?” Nayeon asks with a huge smile. 

“I actually want to hear this too” Jeongyeon says crawling towards the tent entrance. 

“We’re roommates” Kyungsoo explains. 

“That’s all?” Jeongyeon asks “You don’t have anything more interesting to say about it? How did you fall for him?”

“I don’t know I just kinda did.” Kyungsoo explains feeling a little awkward around these girls he just met. “I guess I like how comfortable I feel around him and he’s just really cute and fun?”

“What’s your favourite thing about him then?” Nayeon says trying to get Kyungsoo to open up a bit more. 

Kyungsoo thinks about it a bit. He doesn’t know if there’s really one thing. He likes when Jongin acts confident and stands up for what he believes but he also likes when Jongin’s shy and flustered because it’s just too cute. Obviously he loves how considerate and accepting Jongin is and if he's being honest he's a sucker for Jongin's pout but none of those things would make him fall for someone, befriend them sure but not cause romantic feelings. He doesn’t quite understand it himself but he’s certain about how he feels. It’s almost like liking bread and someone asking what’s your favourite ingredient, none of them but all of them together is what makes it perfect. Kyungsoo smiles to himself thinking about how he compared his boyfriend to a piece of bread. 

“I can’t pick one thing, I can’t even describe why I like him. It’s just everything about him, the way he acts and the way he sees life. Just him. I like who he is.” Kyungsoo finally responds. 

Jeongyeon and Nayeon look at each other and smile. 

“What?” Kyungsoo asks not understanding their reaction. 

“Here you go” Jongin says jogging back with the bike pump. 

“It was great catching up” Nayeon smiles taking the pump back “Have a nice night!”

“You too” Kyungsoo nods. 

Jongin and Kyungsoo walk back through the rain. It’s a short walk so they don’t really talk, plus Kyungsoo’s mind is filled with thought. Why did the girls smile? Did he say something meaningful without knowing? 

Once they get back to the tent they close their umbrellas and get in. They don’t waste any time getting back into the warm cosy sleeping bag. 

“Now we can have some peace” Kyungsoo smiles back “I wish it wasn’t raining because we could spend some time just looking at the stars. I hear they’re way brighter outside the city.”

“One of these nights it won’t be raining and we could do that” Jongin says softly “You know for once this is the way I pictured it. Us just wrapped up in a sleeping bag. Just happy. Well, I wanted it to be under the light of the moon but the sound of the rain is nice too.”

“I love you” Kyungsoo whispers, finally realizing why Nayeon and Jeongyeon reacted that way. They thought he was in love and they're right.

Jongin just looks at him shocked and doesn’t say anything. 

“You don’t have to respond but I just wanted you to know” Kyungsoo whispers looking away. 

“Kyungsoo” Jongin says getting Kyungsoo look back at him “I love you too.”

Kyungsoo leans in to kiss Jongin when the roof of their tent tears causing rain to start pouring on them and their makeshift bed. Kyungsoo quickly moves away and ducks under the sleeping bag to avoid getting soaked by the rain.

“CAN’T WE GO 5 MINUTES WITHOUT ANYTHING GOING WRONG” Jongin yells frustrated as he jumps out of the sleeping bag and starts looking for something to fix it. 

“Jongin” Kyungsoo says softly from under the sleeping bag “I think it’s time to give up.”

“I have a tarp in the car” Jongin explains “If we put it on top we’ll be fine.”

“Listen Jonginnie don't think I don’t really appreciate all the effort you put in this because I do” Kyungsoo says poking his head out and crawling to a part of the tent that’s not being rained on “It was really sweet and thoughtful but sometimes things don’t really work out. We should go back to the dorm where it’s warm and dry.” 

“You’re right” Jongin sighs sitting down on the tent floor “I tried to do something nice but everything I planned went wrong.”

“That’s not true” Kyungsoo says leaning his head on Jongin “We took great those great pictures, the cheese and crackers were good once we got rid of the ants and swimming in the lake was fun, for me anyway.”

“I guess” Jongin finally smiles. 

“Plus this will make a great story.” Kyungsoo laughs “the only thing is it’s so ridiculous no one will believe us.”

“You know how we could make the ending even better?” Jongin asks before showing Kyungsoo his phone. 

“A honeymoon suite?” Kyungsoo says reading the screen “You want to get married?”

“Nah just pretend to be a married couple. It’ll be fun” Jongin suggests “Plus we’ll get a really nice room with the discount code my sister has.”

“Last time you said we’d have fun I ended up rained on in our bed” Kyungsoo mocks. 

“And I’m making up for it” Jongin points out “So what do you say Mr. Kim? Or should I be Mr. Do?”

“Mr. Do suits you” Kyungsoo smiles. 

“Great well now that that’s settled let’s get out of this awful tent and into a hot shower.” Jongin says standing up. 

“Sounds perfect” Kyungsoo says before kissing Jongin passionately. 

The end. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering about the legality of Jongin getting a hotel room, it had to be under Kyungsoo’s name since he’s an adult. 
> 
> Also, I chose not to write them in the hotel pretending to be a married couple because I feel like I'm just dragging this one too much. As is I have a really long epilogue with like no relation to the rest of the plot so yeah. If people do really want it I could write a tiny separate squeal that's just them in the hotel.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it please leave a comment! I love getting feedback!


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